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E ABUNDANT 



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LEE and SHEPARD Publishers 
BOSTON 



LIFE 
MORE ABUNDANT 



SCRIPTURAL TRUTH IN MODERN 
APPLICATION 



BY 

HENRY WOOD 

Author of " Ideal Suggestion," " Studies in the Thought World,' 

" The Symphony of Life," " The New Thought 

Simplified," etc. 



The faith of immortality depends on a sense of 
it begotten, not on an argument for it concluded." 

Horace Bushnell. 










BOSTON 
LOTHROP, LEE AND SHEPARD CO. 



r 



(4oS~j 



JUL 27 1905 

UU&S/Cl *Afc NW 






Published, August, 1905 
COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY HENRY WOOD 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 



PREFACE 



Among the important progressive movements of 
the present time, perhaps there is none more far- 
reaching in its relations than the emancipation of 
the Bible from literalism and formalism. This 
great work is many-sided, and it invites the aid of 
every one who can make any contribution to its 
moving forces. The aim of the writer is spiritually 
constructive. He would undermine no one's faith 
in the Bible, but rather brighten and deepen it, and 
aid in its establishment upon a surer basis. We 
are living in a period of transition and unrest. To 
conserve a true faith in the midst of the present 
uncertainty should be both the duty and pleasure 
of every friend of vital Christianity. 

At a time when professional and technical scholar- 
ship is so widely engaged in Biblical interpretation 
and criticism, it would appear that there is little 
room for anything additional. The clerical profes- 
sion, to its honor, is taking up anew the study and 
solution of the inner significance of the Scriptures, 
and the general search for truth for its own intrin- 

3 



4 PREFACE 

sic value was never before so keen and thorough. 
And yet, it hardly can be questioned that many of 
the broadest and best of the higher critics are not 
entirely free from the bias, conscious or unconscious, 
of denominational training and association. Again, 
owing to the technical and voluminous character of 
their researches, their work is more especially fitted 
to the capacity of scholars than to the popular 
mind. It involves a thorough specialization, for 
which, even the clerical profession, in general is not 
well equipped. But the product of these eminent 
scholars may be taken at a reasonable valuation 
and used as common capital, and any one is at 
liberty to make it the basis for more general and 
popular deduction and implication. 

But aside from very valuable historical and liter- 
ary criticism, the relations of the Bible to science, 
philosophy, psychology, and modern thought in 
many directions, are intimate and of deep signifi- 
cance. The passing of literalism is causing alarm 
among a large class of people, who feel that their 
belief, supposedly settled, is being undermined. 
Their Bible seems to be losing its authority and 
sanctity. A great transition is upon us, and noth- 
ing can hold it back. The vital problem which de- 
mands solution is : How shall popular faith in the 



PREFACE 5 

Bible be spiritualized and made more intelligent, 
rather than weakened or destroyed ? Transition 
periods are always full of unrest and misunder- 
standing. The incidental iconoclasm which is 
involved, to the average observer seems like an 
unhallowed attack upon precious sanctities. Why 
harrow up the peaceful and complacent surface of 
religious life and disturb devout confidence which 
long ago was settled and finished ? Only because 
the soul is constituted for progression and the 
inner nature cannot be stilled by any surface appli- 
cation, however historic or approved. The con- 
servation of a living faith must find its essential 
supports in the diviner depths of the soul nature. 

This work from an independent standpoint has 
for its purpose the preservation of all that is intrin- 
sic in the Written Word. It is addressed to the 
intelligent lay mind, which has neither the time nor 
training for dealing with the intricacies of technical 
criticism and spiritual symbolism. "The letter 
killeth but the spirit giveth life." The literalism 
and inerrancy which have been put upon the Bible, 
under a mistaken obligation of loyalty, are burden- 
some, and largely obliterate its harmony, beauty, 
and unity. Thus, the basis has been formed for 
numerous divisions and rival sects, for under de- 



6 PREFACE 

tached textual interpretation each finds its own en- 
dorsement. The intellectual form or shell has been 
grasped instead of the inner verity. The Church 
has been split into fragments and dogmatized upon 
non-essentials. Under the confusion of varying poli- 
ties, and the complexity of ecclesiastical machinery, 
the essence and vitality has exhaled and escaped. 
The truth of the Bible, which was originally ex- 
pressed in warm Oriental symbolism, is marred, or 
hidden, by its rendering into rigid, cold, and prosaic 
English. Here is the real cause for most of the pre- 
vailing scepticism and agnosticism. The sceptic is 
as much of a literalist as the extreme orthodox, and 
his unbelief is the logical outcome. The believer 
in absolute inerrancy, not only misses the intrinsic 
treasure of the Bible himself, but he furnishes the 
weapons for an attack by its opponents. 

If the general, even though simple survey of this 
great subject which is attempted in this volume be 
of any popular use in the rescue of Scripture from 
mechanical hardness which largely hides its deeper 
harmonizing and transforming power, in freeing it 
from the barnacles which have glued themselves to 
it, in emancipating it from the unlovely dogmatisms 
with which it has been identified, in making it more 
natural and attractive, instead of abnormal and far 



PREFACE 7 

away, in interpreting it as a variety in unity, in- 
stead of a collection of discordant texts and say- 
ings, in showing inspiration in each part to the 
degree that it inspires, in recognizing that its divin- 
ity comes through man instead of being a projec- 
tion toward him from without, in discovering the 
immanence, oneness, and love of God, as well as his 
formal legality and anthropomorphic kingship — if, 
in any measure, these principles be made more pop- 
ularly apparent by the perusal of this volume as 
one of many auxiliary influences, the author will 
feel that his effort has not been in vain. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. A Condensed Survey n 

II. Eden and the Fall 27 

III. The Bible and Nature 47 

IV. The Bible and Idealism 63 

V. Biblical Poetry and Fiction 82 

VI. The Miraculous and the Supernatural ... 95 

VII. The Priest and the Prophet 122 

VIII. The Higher Criticism 135 

IX. Christ and Jesus 150 

X. Sacrifice and Atonement 175 

XL The Real Seat of Authority 196 

XII. Salvation 218 

XIII. History, Manuscripts, and Translations . . 230 

XIV. Faith and the Unseen 247 

XV. Life More Abundant 272 

XVI. The Future Life 286 

XVII. The Glory of the Commonplace 302 

XVIII. The Forward March 307 



I 

A CONDENSED SURVEY 

There is a general desire to know the Bible 
better. In this age of keen and searching in- 
quiry, everything is on trial. Principles, dogmas, 
and opinions are being tested in real life, and 
weighed in delicate balances. Nothing is exempt 
from this sifting process, no, not even the Bible. 
Sentiment, tradition, and general belief are no 
longer above question or beyond fair criticism. 
The demand which is present at every inquest is : 
What is its merit ? This is the criterion of truth, 
and determines value. No friend of the Bible 
need object to the application of this universal 
test to the Book. Rather he should seek it. 
Outward authority, sanctity, sentiment, and pres- 
tige have changeable values, but merit endures. 
It would seem therefore, that no apology is neces- 
sary for a consideration of the Bible, on its merits. 
Nothing less can form the real basis for a hearty 
love and warm appreciation of the Written Word. 
In the simplest terms, the Bible is a record of 



12 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

the spiritual experiences and divine intimacies of 
gifted and eminent souls. While it contains 
numerous abstract principles, warnings, and com- 
mands, it, more definitely, is a guide to life, 
through its delineation of numberless experiments 
in actual living. Its authors, each freighted with 
some varying influx of divine truth, are scattered 
like beacon lights along the pathway of human 
history. They represent the Hebrew race and 
religion, and later, the rise and spread of a broader 
and higher manifestation of truth and light in the 
early distinctive Christian system. 

The Old Testament is a selected and vital part 
of the early Hebrew literature, including the 
national history of religion, government, ethics, 
and philosophy. It is the fittest survival of a 
great mass of the sacred writings of a race in 
many ways peculiarly favored. But internally it 
makes no unique claims for itself as a collective 
unit, for it only became such after a long period 
of demonstrated quality and superior vitality. 
The Old Testament represents the heart and soul 
of the ancient national writings, or, more exactly, 
their blossoming in the form of literature. 
Wherein is literature distinguished from writings 
in general ? To rightly deserve the name, it 



A CONDENSED SURVEY 13 

must be more than a recital of objective and 
historical facts, more than intellectual informa- 
tion, more than the science, law, or mechanical 
achievement of the period. It must bear the 
subjective stamp of humanity, and convey the 
subtle aroma of the human spirit. It must be 
exuberant with its current hopes, aspirations, and 
ideals, and also recount its sufferings and sacri- 
fices. It must teach lessons suffused with life 
and motive, and appeal to the imaginative nature. 
It must furnish a comparative mirror for the edu- 
cational use of other times and races. 

To picture in musical verse or rhythm the pre- 
vailing spirit and creative imagination of any race 
or period, is to enshrine it in the most vivid set- 
ting. A liberal portion of the Old Testament 
literature appears in poetic form, and is rich in 
dramatic quality. Lofty flights of spiritual in- 
sight and attainment mark the Psalms, and are 
rich in the messages of the prophets, in the 
soul pictures of the epic of Job, and in many 
other graphic sketches of human expression and 
practical heroism. 

Even the simpler ancient narratives show a 
purpose more than historic. They teach religious 
and ethical lessons and inspire confidence in the 



14 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

divine purpose and dealings. But all these vary 
with each writer, as age, environment, and tem- 
perament are differentiated. Some of the moral 
and ethical transactions which seem to receive 
approval, cannot stand in the fuller light of the 
New Testament and modern standards. The 
cruel destruction of alien peoples, the occasional 
revelation of a revengeful spirit, and the maledic- 
tions of the imprecatory Psalms must receive 
emphatic disapproval. The evolutionary progress 
between the earlier and later Scripture is thus made 
plain, and the mischievous dogma that the Bible 
was written, word by word, by divine dictation 
becomes logically untenable. Both the goodness 
and the unchangeableness of God would receive 
a challenge from such an idolatry of the letter. 
The errancy and fallibility of the human element 
in the Bible is thereby made certain. That the 
Old Testament worthies were men not exempt 
from the passions and mistakes of other men, is 
abundantly shown, and their history is full of les- 
sons for suggestion and improvement. 

The Old Testament is a treatise in moral phil- 
osophy, illustrated by pictures of character and 
circumstance. The steady, unfolding, spiritual 
sense of a favored people, their experiments, mis- 



A CONDENSED SURVEY 15 

takes, and disciplinary penalties constitute a pecu- 
liar religious system, dramatically presented in 
human action. Through the sacred literature, 
the Hebrew race for long centuries was a living 
and breathing solidarity. It occupied the center 
of the stage of human development, not only for 
its own time, but for an educational incentive to 
subsequent ages. The moral supremacy of the 
Hebrew monotheism stands out by contrast with 
the polytheism of the surrounding ethnic systems. 
But the contemporary religions had their sacred 
writings, some of them lofty in spirit and aim, 
and well fitted to their peculiar times and races, 
and of great service in the moral development of 
the world. The Vedas, Puranas, Zend Avesta, 
Upanishads, Koran, Eddas, and many other sa- 
cred writings are full of high thoughts and noble 
utterances. Many of them are poetic in form, 
idealistic in quality, and spiritually elevating and 
inspirational. A careful and impartial study of 
comparative religion plainly shows that many 
Christian apologists have been unjust in their 
estimate of other Scriptures, and disparaged them 
unduly. Many leading ideas in Christian theology, 
like those of the trinity, sacrifice, atonement, and 
a corresponding observance of special times and 



16 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

anniversaries, are found elsewhere, often with 
such distinctness as to indicate a common origin. 
Dr. James Freeman Clarke in his notable work, 
"Ten Great Religions," gives many examples of a 
striking similarity, from which two selections may 
be quoted as illustrative. They are from two 
Babylonian tablets, which contain an account of 
the Creation. 

THE FIRST TABLET 

i. When the upper region was not yet called 
heaven, 

2. and the lower region was not yet called earth, 

3. and the abyss of Hades had not yet opened its 

arms, 

4. then the chaos of waters gave birth to all of 

them 

5. and the waters were gathered into one place. 

6. No men yet dwelt together : no animals yet 

wandered about : 

7. none of the gods had yet been born. 

8. Their names were not spoken : their attributes 

were not known. 

9. Then the eldest of the gods 

10. Lakhmu and Lakhamu were born 

n. and grew up 

12. Assur and Kissur were born next 

13. and lived through long periods 

14. Anu 

(The rest of this tablet is missing.) 



A CONDENSED SURVEY 17 

THE FIFTH TABLET 

(This fifth tablet, Dr. Clarke thought very important, 
because it indicated the origin of the Sabbath in close 
correspondence with the creative record in the Bible. 
It is also known that the Babylonians observed the 
Sabbath with many restrictions.) 

1. He constructed dwellings for the great gods. 

2. He fixed up constellations, whose figures were 

like animals. 

3. He made the year. Into four quarters he 

divided it. 

4. Twelve months he established, with their con- 

stellations three by three. 

5. And for the days of the year he appointed 

festivals. 

6. He made dwellings for the planets: for their 

rising and setting. 

7. And that nothing should go amiss, and that the 

course of none should be retarded, 

8. he placed with them the dwellings of Bel and 

Hea. 

9. He opened great gates, on every side : 

10. he made strong the portals, on the left hand 

and on the right. 

11. In the center he placed luminaries. 

12. The moon he appointed to rule the night 

13. and to wander through the night until the dawn 

of day. 

14. Every month without fail he made holy assem- 

bly days. 



18 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

15. In the beginning of the month, at the rising of 

the night, 

16. it shot forth its horns to illuminate the heavens. 

17. On the seventh day he appointed a holy day, 

18. and to cease from all business he commanded. 

19. Then arose the sun in the horizon of heaven in 

(glory). 

But these, and all other creative records which 
have come to light lack the sublimity, beauty, and 
coherence of the narrative in Genesis. Notwith- 
standing the multitude of lofty sentiments in the 
Scriptures of the ethnic religions, the positive and 
practical transcendence of the Bible as a guide 
in human conduct and life is too evident to be 
brought in question. But we must not be un- 
mindful that Judaism was but a racial system 
embodied in a national literature, though possess- 
ing universal elements and lessons. But its ex- 
pansive successor, Christianity, burst the bonds of 
race and nation and developed a positive catho- 
licity. 

The Bible is the leading exponent of morals and 
the higher human attainment. But it does not 
claim to be a complete and finished revelation. 
Truth does not originate in its pages, nor gain 
authority from textual declarations. It eternally 
existed, The Decalogue was inscribed in man's 



A CONDENSED SURVEY 19 

nature long before it was graven upon tables of 
stone. The Written Word has been regarded as 
a code of divine legislation, or even as the edict of 
a Monarch, but more truly it is an emancipation. 
The love of God wrought into the lives of men of 
old — men like us — through all the lights and 
shadows of human experience brings out in high 
relief the ideals to be sought and the mistakes to 
be avoided in the uneven earthly pilgrimage, over 
which they passed far in advance of us. 

Unchangeable principles are presented in the 
Book in many forms and guises, but their accept- 
ance comes only in evolutionary order. The ideals 
which are held up by its many authors, in their 
successive periods, show a constant advance and 
uplift. The earlier concepts of God were low and 
unworthy. Jehovah, the tribal or national deity 
was only supreme in degree, as compared with the 
gods of the neighboring peoples. Among many, 
he towered the highest. In a deep sense each 
nation made its own ideal and name for the un- 
seen Power, and its concept corresponded with its 
own state of development. There could be no 
appreciative capacity beyond. No one can wor- 
ship the true God, except to the degree that he has 
the truth and conscious image within himself. 



20 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

That which every one calls God is but an objective 
appellation for his own vision, high or low, of the 
one universal Power, Life, Intelligence, and Will. 
From the very nature of things he is true or false 
in the degree of truth or falsity in the worshipper. 
Startling as it may seem, so far as conscious 
relation exists on the manward side, each one 
makes his own God. From the limited, local, and 
exclusive idea of the Infinite which prevailed dur- 
ing the early stages of the Old Testament litera- 
ture, there is a constant advance in moral quality, 
on and up to the lofty concepts which are so richly 
set forth in the New Testament Scriptures. 

The idea of sacrifice as a means of propitiation 
or appeasement to the deity was a fitting charac- 
teristic of all the early religious systems. Such a 
rite, based upon fear and mystery, clearly reveals 
the moral status of the gradations at the dawn of 
the spiritual consciousness. 

The evolutionary character of the Bible is also 
apparent in the very slow unfoldment of ideas of 
future existence and immortality. While almost 
entirely lacking, except by feeble implication in the 
Old Testament, life after death is brought dis- 
tinctly to the front only in the New. If the 
Bible, as a completed divine product came directly 



A CONDENSED SURVEY 21 

from God, it would logically follow that all parts 
of it should be of equal authority and moral ex- 
cellence. But if it be a divine message, in and 
through man, colored by the human medium, it 
must contain a mingling of the fallible and im- 
perfect. If sunshine passes through colored glass, 
it is modified in manifestation. How can the finite 
bring forth pure infinite product ? Any " revela- 
tion " must be upon the level of the recipient, 
otherwise it is a vain formality. If there be abun- 
dant divine goodness, only human goodness can in 
any degree interpret it. 

Despite temporary interruptions, the great 
human procession is moving forward by easy stages, 
and of this general trend, the Bible furnishes an 
accurate index. Note the great distance traveled 
between the early sanction of slavery and polygamy 
and the indiscriminate slaughter of enemies, to the 
lofty ideals of the Sermon on the Mount, the 
golden rule, and the fourth Gospel. Is God vacil- 
lating and changeable? Then the improvement 
must have been in men, as reflected in the rising 
outlooks of their Biblical literature. Man grows 
just in proportion as his consciousness awakens 
to his own intrinsic divinity and oneness with 
his Source. He is slow to discover himself as 



22 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

a child of God, made in the divine image and 
likeness. 

The Bible is like a great mirror. Objectively 
the same in motive and mission, each reader catches 
an aspect and reflection somewhat unique. It has 
one message but many interpretations, one drama- 
tic story, but both acted and seen by many unlike 
characters, under all kinds of conditions, fixed in 
its present objective form, yet always varying in 
significance, even to the same individual in differ- 
ing moods and periods. In the final analysis, to 
the individual, it is his idea of the Book which is 
the Bible to him. This psychological principle 
shows why each one of the scores of sects finds its 
own peculiar creed in the same collective content. 
Through the use of "proof texts," which consti- 
tutes the crowning abuse of the spirit of inspired 
literature, each finds exactly what it looks for. 
Even upon the supposition that every word and 
punctuation mark were of divine origin, the diver- 
sity of dogmatic interpretations would not be les- 
sened. Through fitting selections from the Bible, 
men read themselves into it. 

The prevailing view of the Bible has made it 
rigid and prosaic in form but feeble in practical 
vitality. A mere intellectual belief and acceptance 



A CONDENSED SURVEY 23 

can have no power until it is translated into fresh 
and personal manifestation. Even truth is dead 
until positively incarnated. Inspiration means in- 
breathing. God's spirit can be breathed into a 
living soul, but not into dead things, or parchment, 
or letters. These may suggest life, but they can- 
not live. 

Turning to the New Testament, its shaping, the 
selection of its different parts, and its final unifica- 
tion were as unstudied and undesigned as in the 
case of the older Scriptures. There was no plan, 
and the writers had no idea of a future formulated 
and united Book. Spiritual spontaneity only can 
explain the process and final result. Jesus wrote 
no treatise for future generations. His teachings 
were spirit and life and they awakened the divinity 
in human souls. They were living principles and 
morally contagious. His message was not a form 
of law, not freighted with pessimism but glowing 
with optimism. His words, meagerly reported, 
through memory and tradition became a growing 
inspiration, and his followers at length made im- 
perfect records of their substance. As the power 
of faith and spiritual simplicity in the Primitive 
Church was gradually replaced by an era of theo- 
logical speculation, tradition took shape, special 



24 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

dogmas were formulated, and apologetics multiplied. 
Great differences of opinion existed as to the rela- 
tive authority and merit of the sacred writings, but 
by the close of the second century the Scripture 
for general use in the churches had substantially 
been chosen. But still there were some dissen- 
sions, and not until the third council of Carthage, 
at the close of the third century, was the canon 
confirmed and approved, and handed down to the 
Western Church. 

When the Bible is brought into close contact 
with the human soul it is able to kindle an inner 
spirit and life. With many misinterpretations, it 
yet has been the great organizing and vitalizing 
force in the higher development of life and conduct. 
But because of the greatly increased depth and 
range of modern knowledge, much of the letter 
would be regarded as mythical, were it not proved 
that a great mine of meaning and spiritual corre- 
spondence lives beneath it. Here is its vital in- 
spirational power. As an analysis of the letter, 
behold the dry technicality of a Biblical commen- 
tary of the former time and type. The pressed 
and dried leaves of a flower do not reveal its beauty 
and symmetry. If the Bible is to live, it must live 
in the soul. There it cannot be a dead letter. 



A CONDENSED SURVEY 25 

For a simple outline of the wonderful variety in 
the sacred Book we take the liberty of a quotation 
from a former work : l 

" The inspired Book is like a vast landscape, rich 
and varied, both in foreground and perspective. There 
are majestic mountain peaks whose summits pierce the 
clouds; peaceful valleys containing green pastures; 
trees and plants, waving grain and blooming flowers, 
fruitful gardens and sandy wastes, purling brooks and 
mighty rivers, lowing herds and gentle flocks, rocks, 
pitfalls, precipices, fog, sunshine, and shadow. Law, 
History, Poetry, and Prophecy, in the Old Testament, 
and the higher ethical and more spiritual teaching in 
the Gospels and Epistles of the New are mingled in 
changing proportion in the different periods of the 
unique history of the Hebrew nation. Upon the sur- 
face of this great swift-flowing current are seen the 
simple dignity of patriarchal and pastoral life, the 
cruelty of slavery, institutes of priestly orders and sac- 
rificial offerings, the government of judgeship, the 
authority of kingship, graceful poetry and metrical 
psalmody, weary ages of captivity, prophetic teaching 
and warning, Messianic expectancy, fulfillment, tragedy, 
spiritual baptism, persecution, the planting of churches, 
and racial dispersion. 

"What wonderful life lessons are dramatically por- 
trayed in the symbolical epic of Job ; and its impres- 
siveness does not depend upon its historic verity, any 
more than does the significance of the Parable of the 



1 " God's Image in Man," chapter on " Biblical Revelation," 
Lee and Shepard, Boston. 



26 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Ten Virgins. The Psalms of David, which are full of 
pictures of ever-changing and diverse spiritual moods, 
are equally instructive, and true to nature, whether 
written by the royal Psalmist or by a score of less- 
known authors. The letters to the seven Churches 
would have the same applicability if addressed to the 
churches of the world, as they had to those of a little 
corner of western Asia. The Sacred Hebrew Writings 
make up a grand chorus of warning, reproof, discipline, 
incentive, and inspiration." 



II 

EDEN AND THE FALL 

The Bible is a wonderful Book because it is full 
of hidden treasure. The letter of Scripture may- 
be translated from Oriental into Occidental forms 
of speech, but the rich glow of spiritual truth can 
be seen and felt only "between the lines," by the 
inner perception. Its prose, though not rhythmi- 
cal, is really poetic. So long as rigidity of form, 
doctrine, and proof texts, as such, are in the mind, 
the beauty and inner plasticity of the Word is 
veiled. 

The story of Eden, and of Adam and Eve, is a 
signal example of the wealth of the East in alle- 
gory and literary art. One vital truth, however, 
should be kept constantly in mind. The thing or 
principle symbolized is always vastly greater than 
the illustration or symboL The imagery comes, 
not to destroy but to fulfill. The figurative words 
and phrases are only the tools of the artist, and 
are of no more lasting significance than the 
painter's brush or the sculptor's chisel, Think 

*7 



28 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

of the generations gone by, who have been taught 
to venerate the tools which have been placed in 
front of the divine masterpiece, and have thereby 
" died without the sight." 

Before the full significance of the Edenic nar- 
rative can be interpreted, some knowledge of 
evolutionary and psychological processes is neces- 
sary. Creation no longer means something from 
nothing, but a process of unfoldment and se- 
quence. From the letter of the account, the 
details are arbitrary and historic, but incoherent. 
By divine fiat the cosmos springs forth out of 
nothing. But notwithstanding this superficial 
appearance, Moses, or other early Biblical writers 
concerned, had a poetic vision or intuitive percep- 
tion of the fundamental truth. This clear-sighted- 
ness stood in the place of scientific or technical 
acquirement. 

Before taking up the tradition more in detail, 
we may note the later and broader philosophy of 
creative development. To some, evolution still 
means Darwinian materialism, but this has passed 
as any full and coherent evolutionary statement. 
Though of great value in its own domain, and as 
an entering wedge, it is only partial and incom- 
plete. It is to science what literalism is to the 



EDEN AND THE FALL 29 

Bible. Only does development become fully- 
rounded and rational when it includes the psychi- 
cal and spiritual depths of being. Rich ore does 
not usually lie upon the surface. Philosophical 
idealism shows the fallacy of the theory that sen- 
sation is the basis of all knowledge. Darwin's 
dictum, that "all potency is contained in matter," 
has long enough been held up as denning evo- 
lution by its dogmatic opponents. Were not 
Spencer, Drummond, Le Conte, Fisk, and a host 
of others entitled to be called evolutionists ? 
Spiritual unfoldment, as normal, is as impossible 
to the materialist as to the dogmatist. The former 
deals only with the factors of sense, while the 
latter defines evolution by the same limited stand- 
ard. "Men of straw" are easily knocked down. 
Kant gave a finishing touch to the doctrine that 
sensation forms the complete basis of knowledge, 
but his wonderful psychological analysis needed 
the crown and counterpart of the spiritual realm. 
Every man — and philosophers are no exception — 
receives his wages in the coin of his own realm. 
To disconnect matter, mind, and spirit, an essen- 
tial and interrelated trinity, is to make each frag- 
mentary and misleading. 

Evolution when grasped in its full breadth is 



30 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

the handmaid of religion. Only an exclusive view 
of its lower side has made it seem atheistic, and 
like an enemy. On the other hand, an arbitrary 
religion of dogma, stripped of its vital relation to 
unfoldment, is equally misleading. If we insist 
upon breaking the beautiful sphere of truth into 
fragments, how can they be symmetrical ? 

The Fall, as an allegorical picture of an evolu- 
tionary boundary in human unfoldment, has been 
dealt with in two previous works by the writer, 1 
but the subject is so fundamental that in this con- 
nection a concise presentation seems necessary. 

Though the creative story shadows forth, in 
allegory and metaphor, an order of sequence in 
general accord with modern cosmology, its primal 
purpose is a portraiture of the nature of man. 
The curtain is lifted upon the drama of soul un- 
foldment. We turn outward and gaze into the 
past, when in reality its acts and scenes are within. 
It carries a dual significance, including the race, 
and also each individual unit. As the long physi- 
cal history of the steps of human development is 
told again in the gestative processes of the ante- 



1 " The Symphony of Life," chapter " From the Pre-Adamic 
to the Human," and " God's Image in Man," chapter " Evolu- 
tion as a Key," both published by Lee and Shepard, Boston. 



EDEN AND THE FALL 3 1 

natal body, so the Adamic nature and experience 
is evermore repeated. What a convincing proof 
of the solidarity of the race that its history is 
re-written in every member. Adam in Eden was 
a candidate for humanity. In the narrative there 
are two accounts of the creation of man, which 
are radically unlike. Rather the first was creating 
and the second forming. " And God said, Let us 
make man in our image, after our likeness." This 
is a picture of real man — what he is in essence. 
In a certain deep sense he was divine and com- 
plete from the beginning. God's image could not 
be essentially imperfect, even though imperfectly 
manifested. It is the manifestation which per- 
ceptibly advances. 

The later account, in the second chapter reads : 
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of 
the ground." The first was man, the child of 
God, and the second, the outward form. The 
first was God's likeness, really a part of himself, 
and the second, man's material instrument or em- 
bodiment. Scientific, philosophical, and religious 
systems, alike, have taken the garment of flesh for 
the man himself. When this clothing becomes 
unfit for further service, and is laid aside for new 
combinations, they say, "man is dead." This 



32 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

mistake has come down and received general in- 
stallation. The form of dust represents the com- 
mon opinion that man has had of himself. Is 
God made of dust, that it should be his image ? 
Though "a living soul" in reality, when measured 
by his own consciousness he is an animated form 
of clay. The one important and all comprehen- 
sive lesson in life is the transfer of the self-con- 
sciousness from the seeming to the real. That is 
the "Jacob's ladder" which human understanding 
is to climb, step by step. All the experiences on 
this plane of life have this for their ultimate pur- 
pose. All the religions and " means of grace " 
are to this end. What is spiritual is primal, but 
in expression and consciousness the lower self 
comes first. The laws of growth, in order to 
be well understood, must be wrought in by ex- 
perience. Nothing less than the friction of this 
educational life will deeply engrave upon human 
consciousness the one great lesson : I am not what 
I seem ; I am spirit clothed upon. 

The divine image is ever back of all degrees of 
personality which imperfectly represent it. Adam 
stands for the first and lowest in the order of 
humanized expression. His name defines a state 
of consciousness — a mistaking of the shadow for 



EDEN AND THE FALL 33 

the substance — and all embodied souls pass 
through this zone in their development. When 
pre-Adamic man (man to be) becomes Adam, he 
enters the rudimentary class in humanity. What 
a step from the animal soul to the knowledge of 
good and evil. For the first time there is a 
glimpse of the moral law which hangs threaten- 
ingly overhead. Before, he had no aspiration, but 
now he aims forward at a mark but continually 
misses it. 

The story of human nature in Eden is inde- 
pendent of time, space, or locality. It is a passing 
vision of the universal order of development. 
Perfected animalhood can go no further in the 
Garden, and must emerge with a new faculty into 
the thorny field of wisdom by experience. The 
graduate of the lower order steps into the pri- 
mary department of the higher. Seemingly a fall, 
really an infinite rise. 

It is quite immaterial whether Moses or some 
other intuitive soul wrote the Edenic allegory. 
The particular human channel for Truth is inci- 
dental, even though the vision be a rare and sig- 
nificant one. We glance at man in the making, 
with an epitome of cosmic correspondences. He- 
brew scholars inform us that that language has 



34 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

little tense significance. Its verb forms denote 
state or condition rather than time or circumstance. 
The translation is simple. Pre- Adam ic man was 
a splendid creature and stood at the apex of his 
kingdom. With keen senses and fine physique, 
the color, odor, taste, and feeling of the Edenic 
paradise ministered to him completely. The Gar- 
den represents the utmost luxury and fullness of 
sensory enjoyment. Its occupant was innocent, 
irresponsible, and unmoral, being incapable of mor- 
ality or immorality. His instinct was exact but 
every rational and spiritual faculty yet was latent. 
He was the full ripeness of one great evolutionary 
subdivision and was now ready to cross the line to 
the next. Behold the Garden with its wealth of 
delight for every sense ! Nothing was wanting 
and no improvement possible. But at length 
satiety became ominous. Such was, or is, the 
Edenic paradise within man. But on an event- 
ful day, the God-voice in the expanding soul be- 
came audible. From gestative slumber rationality 
emerged into the consciousness. 

Infantile and stumbling reason now took the 
helm and mistakes became the rule. What a con- 
trast with former unerring instinct ! Trouble and 
friction everywhere ! Was it not a great fall, and 



EDEN AND THE FALL 35 

what an apparent basis for the creative tradition ! 
But in reality, a limited and low-vaulted kingdom 
was exchanged for one of infinite possibilities. A 
quick transition, by the telling, but time is but a 
feeble factor in soul development. Millenniums 
may be required, merely for crossing a line. Eden 
was gone forever, but a great residuum of animal- 
ism was carried over. Unrest, discontent, the 
moral law, penalty, a sense of guilt, toil, and sweat, 
must be faced. How slow the progress and how 
slight the perception that all the obstacles were 
— and are to this day — educational advantages ! 
Spiritual muscle is developed in the exercise of 
their removal. 

Note again the rare and significant symbolism ! 
Adam and Eve represent the intellectual and the 
spiritual, the rational and the intuitive, the mascu- 
line and the feminine elements in the human soul. 
These are in all souls, and sex is but superficial, 
but in general it marks a qualitive predominance of 
one of them, as indexed by outward expression. 
Adam came first in order, as the rational faculty 
being lower in rank comes earlier into manifes- 
tation. How true to evolution in the order of 
unfoldment ! Some have rated the intuition as 
perfected instinct, or as its survival. But intui- 



36 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

tion being intelligent, with unlimited possibilities, 
properly comes after rationality. 

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was 
in the midst of the Garden of the inner self, and 
the voice, now audible, told man that the penalty 
for partaking of its fruit — moral discernment — 
would be death, that is, to his type. Not physical 
dissolution which already prevailed, but an end to 
native innocence, animal contentment, and sensu- 
ous fullness. The animal, pure and simple, went 
down. That grade of soul was lost with the dis- 
covery "as one of us, to know good and evil," and 
of a new and higher life. Spiritual perception was 
a fresh development and involved moral choice by 
contrast. Man was now to choose between the 
higher and lower, the lawful and the unlawful, and 
the seeming and the real. A little later in the 
narrative, Cain and Abel personify the two states 
which bring forth fruit in outward expression. 
The lower appears first in the natural order, but 
Cain was no longer an animal, for he was conscious 
of wrong. 

To miss the mark (sin) is an experience, which, 
through penalty, is educational. To learn to choose 
the higher instead of the lower, constitutes salva- 
tion. During the slow unfoldment of the spiritual 



EDEN AND THE FALL 37 

soul, struggle, pain, thorns, and thistles of every 
kind, are rank in the consciousness, and triumph 
and defeat alternate in the candidate for spiritual 
and ideal manhood. Life is a series of charges 
and retreats, but on the whole of increasing ad- 
vances, at a price which makes spiritual values 
apparent. The lower is but the soil in which the 
higher takes root. This growth gains in breadth 
and grandeur, and comes from adverse conditions, 
overcome, outgrown, and left behind. The per- 
sistence of the substratum of animalism in man is 
shown by the outcroppings of selfishness, envy, 
strife, and war, which crowd human history. The 
animal nature, which was good in its own time, 
becomes an adversary if it emerges into rule 
during the human period. After it loses its right- 
ful crown, its new position is only to serve. 

Man's choice of the higher must be free, for if 
he were forced to take the higher road he would 
become an automaton. To wrestle with that lower 
selfhood which is typified or personified by the 
devil, is not only a duty but a privilege. " Then 
was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, 
to be tempted of the devil." (Matthew iv, 1.) 
" Led up of the Spirit " is significant. The temp- 
tation and fasting for forty days is a striking alle- 



38 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

gory of an inner period of great spiritual and 
moral development. Every soul has its wilder- 
ness. The recorded experience of Job, told in 
epic form, is a vivid object-lesson of the same 
principle made intensely dramatic by symbolism. 

As the Adamic soul is left behind and the spiri- 
tual self becomes dominant, the ego is lifted to a 
higher outlook. The divine element in man is his 
Redeemer, his subjective Christ. It is the leaven 
which leavens the whole lump. All souls are can- 
didates for such an incarnation. 

The whole Edenic delineation, including the ex- 
pulsion and the " flaming sword," is neither mean- 
ingless fiction, nor objective history, but a study 
in evolution, scientific as well as religious. It is a 
psychological and spiritual drama, put upon the 
stage and acted before us. The dominant animal 
makes his final adieu and rationality leaps to the 
front. The former has served well but now is 
deposed, while his successor is but an inexperi- 
enced child. How weak and helpless the babe 
of to-day appears when compared with the trained 
Arabian horse, and yet how far superior in rank, 
potentiality, and spiritual consciousness ! When 
humanity burst its shell in the animal soul, the 
nucleus for divine capacity and unbounded ideals 



EDEN AND THE FALL 39 

was in evidence. The very wealth of possibili- 
ties in store produced immediate discouragement. 
There was kindled an intense longing utterly inca- 
pable of near-by satisfaction. It was a great 
hunger with but a morsel of bread in sight. 

The Eden of sensuous delight was no longer 
possible, and Adamic man — now human — was 
forced out, and this by no arbitrary divine ruling, 
but by the necessity of his own nature. But Eden 
was still a sweet recollection, and, for the present, 
what a contrast ! While the children of Israel 
were on their way to the Promised Land, their 
longing turned back toward "the flesh pots of 
Egypt." Many to-day are trying to find the road 
back to Eden, believing that paradise still lies in 
that direction. Even awakened souls have some 
corresponding experience. They are so far behind 
their own ideals that there is deep discouragement 
over present attainment. Sometimes we look back 
to the ignorant innocence of childhood as a kind 
of Eden, which it well typifies. What a weight 
of responsibility comes with added years, greater 
knowledge and awareness of our spiritual potential ! 

The human mind is filled with new longings and 
glimpses of lofty ideals. But still man turns his 
face back toward the Garden-gate, and there 



40 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

flashes before him the " flame of a sword " which 
turns every way. He may indulge himself in ani- 
malism, but he cannot again be an animal. His 
dissatisfaction, which is really a hunger for the 
divine, he cannot interpret. It is impossible to go 
back, and to go forward means sweat and sorrow. 
Another paradise, far more pure and beautiful is 
potential, but it is so far ahead that it is hardly 
perceptible. The universal trend is forward, and 
to animalize himself after his rational incarnation is 
to " kick against the pricks." So the human can- 
not again go back to the animal, nor the animal to 
the vegetal, nor the vegetal to the mineral, nor 
the mineral to the elemental. A flaming sword 
is everywhere to the rearward and cuts off any 
retreat over the boundary of each kingdom. A 
material paradise is no more for human kind, for 
man is a spiritual being. Man must advance and 
the rough ground be tilled and cultivated. As a 
race, and as individuals, we must try not merely 
to get rid of thorns and thistles, but to trans- 
form them. The flaming sword is a provision of 
divine love. It would be easier for a man to go 
back to childhood than to parry the sword and 
scale the walls of the Garden. But even were it 
possible, the beauty would have dissolved. We 



EDEN AND THE FALL 41 

have a universal warrant of progress. The sense 
of incompleteness as well as the drawing of spiri- 
tual ideals urges man onward. The kindly thorns 
in the rear now guard us against our seeming 
selves. 

In the first chapter of Genesis, the Creator is 
called God. In the second chapter, divinity is 
represented in more concrete terms, as acting and 
having a voice, and is called the "Lord God," or, 
as rendered in the new American revision, "Jeho- 
vah God." It seems reasonable to interpret the 
latter as the inner voice or spiritual intuition in 
man. There is much involved in the story of the 
part taken by the serpent in the temptation. With 
ancient seers and mystics of the East, the term 
serpent is much employed in symbolism, and its 
significance is very elastic. In various ways and 
relations it may stand either for good or evil in 
high degree. Says Dr. Brewer in his " Dictionary 
of Phrase and Fable " : 



The serpent is emblematical : 

(1) Of wisdom. " Be ye therefore wise as serpents 
and harmless as doves." (Matt, x, 16.) 

(2 ) Of subtility. " Now the serpent was more sub- 
til than any beast of the field." (Gen. iii, 1 .) 



42 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

The serpent is symbolical : 

(i) Of deity, because, says Plutarch, " It feeds upon 
its own body ; even so all things spring from God, and 
will be resolved into deity again." 

(2) Of eternity, as a corollary of the former. It is 
represented as forming a circle and holding its tail in 
its mouth. 

(3) Of renovation. It is said that the serpent, when 
it is old, has the power of growing young again by 
casting its slough, which is done by squeezing itself be- 
tween two rocks. 

(4) Of guardian spirits. It was thus employed by 
the ancient Greeks and Romans, and not unfrequently 
the figure of a serpent was depicted on their altars. 

Among the ancient Greeks serpents were fabled to 
be able to foresee future events. " Their ears have 
been serpent-licked," was said of augurs 

Besides figuring in Christian art as the tempter 
in Eden, "the old serpent" is a general name for 
Satan, or the adversary. In mystic lore the ser- 
pent rampant symbolizes the lower human passions, 
and propensities, while in the form of a ring, with 
its tail in its mouth, it represented both wisdom 
and eternity, because eternity has neither begin- 
ning nor end. 

The account in Genesis clearly makes the ser- 
pent symbolic of wisdom, and does not indicate 



EDEN AND THE FALL 43 

that it included malignity. In fact, it appears that 
the prophecy of the serpent as to the result of dis- 
obedience turned out to be true. Though it was 
death to the animal type of being, which was ready 
to die, " their eyes were opened," and they became 
as "God, knowing good and evil." This predic- 
tion, and its fulfillment, exactly described the great 
evolutionary transition which was both natural and 
necessary. Development is couched in spiritual 
terms. The ultimate end to be worked out by 
this disobedience was, and is, beneficent. The 
serpent evidently means mystical wisdom, which, 
though symbolically personified, came into the 
mind of Eve, who stands for the intuition or spir- 
itual perception. There was no disobedience to 
God, the Unchangeable, because the whole trans- 
action was in accord with his law of progress which 
was eternally ordained. Stated in plain terms the 
great upward step came from wisdom through Eve, 
or spiritual insight. This being quicker to per- 
ceive than the intellectual — or Adam — leads in 
the new departure. Though in the order of out- 
ward manifestation Adam came first, the intuitive 
faculty — Eve — outranks him and is the natural 
leader. "The first shall be last and the last, first." 
The voice of warning against the new departure 



44 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

should not be indentured with God, the Creator, 
as used in the first chapter. It seems to represent 
the doom of a type — the animal — that was about 
to lose its supremacy and go down. It was an in- 
stinctive cry which was personified to make it more 
distinct. In an Oriental book, where symbolism 
makes animals talk, and trees " clap their hands," 
any great principle might well be represented as 
having a voice. If you advance so as to discern 
good and evil, you shall die as a dominant order. 
You evermore will be subordinate. Without press- 
ing symbolism too far, it seems as if this interpre- 
tation, in general, tends to reconcile evolution, re- 
ligion, science, and psychology. A wholesome 
u divine discontent " characterizes unfolding spiri- 
tual beings, but we may rejoice in being out of and 
beyond the Garden. Unending aspiration is what 
is fitting. We should be continually " forgetting 
the things which are behind." It is unprofitable to 
look back. The experience of Lot's wife has a 
wide significance. Life from the lower side is an 
unending paradox, insoluble until interpreted from 
the higher point of view. 

The ladder, the steps of which stretch up before 
us, leads from the Adamic to the Christ conscious- 
ness. The reactions of life will not permit the soul 



EDEN AND THE FALL 45 

to be long inert. Adam is not to be condemned 
but used as a base. In view of the necessity, 
orderly place, and potential goodness of the Fall, 
what a radical mistake to count it as a human ca- 
lamity ! It is an integral part of the divine plan 
that man should discover the secret of his own 
being, in order that he may work his way God- 
ward. But it was necessary that he should sojourn 
in Eden until he came into possession of his spiri- 
tual faculties. 

Conventional religious systems are based upon 
the idea of repair instead of development. "The 
scheme of salvation" was formulated when the 
Fall was taken to be literal history, and the Garden 
a spiritual paradise. Dogma pre-supposes " original 
holiness" and a subsequent failure of God's first 
plan. Verily, it is literalism and not criticism 
which unwittingly mars the sacred Book. The im- 
plication is that God's work in human creation was 
so disappointing that Jesus must go between and 
shield the " image " from him who made it. Is it 
a wonder that human salvation drags while the 
Heavenly Father is thrown into an eclipse ? 

If the church is to " win souls " it must modify 
its worn-out official formularies and lift its con- 
sciousness to the level of truth. The whole story 



46 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

of the Fall is a beautiful allegory, filled with evo- 
lutionary, psychical, and spiritual significance, and 
it honors the sacred literature. God's plan and 
work were eternally perfect and needed no repairs 
or anxious afterthought. It only remains for man 
to cooperate, looking not backward to the old 
sensuous Eden, but inward and forward to a spiri- 
tual paradise to be set up in the recesses of his own 
being, or as defined by Jesus : " The kingdom of 
heaven is within you." If the corner-stone of the 
former theologies — the repair of a literal Fall — 
has visibly crumbled, why not find the unchange- 
able Rock of Truth and build upon that ? 



Ill 

THE BIBLE AND NATURE 

When truly interpreted, the spirit of the Bible 
is in full accord with the inwardness of Nature. 
The supernatural is only the higher zone of the 
natural. God is more directly the Author of the 
book of Nature than of the Written Word. Nature 
is sacred, a true Theophany. Her kingdom mingles 
and coalesces with the domain of spirit. No line 
can be drawn between them, for truth is not frag- 
mentary, but a rounded unit. If one part be sup- 
pressed, and counted as common and secular, the 
whole is marred. 

The Nature-lover — and his name is legion — 
should not remain color-blind to her spiritual re- 
lations and vital unity. His appreciation should 
not be limited to a delight in graceful forms, colors, 
perfumes, and visions of sensuous beauty, for these 
are but outward draperies. The theologian or 
biblicist who limits the Word of God to one book 
— a special and unique revelation — fails to find 
his most vital supports, and misses a wholesome 

47 



48 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

spontaneity. Special and formal religion cannot 
longer afford to look askance at natural religion. 
The natural type is the divine type, for below the 
surface there is but one. 

The general recognition of the divine immanence 
is a marked characteristic of the closing years of 
the last century and of the opening of the one just 
begun. Do the century boundaries respectively 
mark a new impulse in human progress ? A cold 
intellectuality, mechanical philosophy, and a barren 
deism prevailed in the eighteenth century. The 
nineteenth opened with a more poetic spirit, and 
an increased responsiveness to Nature through 
human emotion and imagination. Wordsworth, 
Coleridge, and other idealistic souls discovered 
that God and Nature were not at odds. They 
kindled some general appreciation of the humanity 
and sociability of flowers and trees, birds and air, 
and sky and cloud and sunshine, and of the friend- 
liness of common things and natural beauty. But 
the more full appreciation of the divine immanence, 
the responsive springs in the soul of man and the 
rise of a spiritual optimism was reserved mainly for 
the century transition of our own time. But the 
fuller vision is yet limited to a sprinkling of souls 
of a prophetic cast, who are the heralds of a new 



THE BIBLE AND NATURE 49 

era which shall witness the espousal of Revelation 
and Nature, religion and science, and spirit and 
matter. 

The subdivisions which men make in their 
knowledge and research are unnatural and mis- 
leading. The domain of Reality is not lined and 
fenced between the sacred and secular, Biblical reve- 
lation and that which is cosmical, or divinity and 
humanity. Analysis and specialism divide and 
subdivide, until their votaries can see but little 
save in one direction. In the physical domain, 
modern biology discovers that the so-called king- 
doms shade into each other. The mineral, veg- 
etal, animal, and human are really progressive 
relatives. They form a long but symmetrical 
procession. Lines, angles, and fractions in nature 
are but superficial or imaginary. But the older 
thought made the natural and supernatural, the 
finite and infinite, the human and the divine not 
only unrelated but in opposition. There was a 
mutual exclusiveness. God was not in the soul and 
Nature also was Godless. She was but an infinite 
mechanism and God was outside and far away. 
The divine love and goodness was something alto- 
gether different from human love and goodness. 

Biblical interpretation, either consciously or un- 



50 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

consciously, is always fitted to the prevailing con- 
cepts of the nature and philosophy of the universe 
of its own time. The old dogmatisms were in ac- 
cord with the Ptolemaic system of physics and 
astronomy. Calvin's theology was the fruit of a 
literalized Bible, and also corresponded with the 
recognized order of things in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. When his depressing environment is con- 
sidered with the contemporaneous influences which 
must have colored his consciousness, he may de- 
serve more commendation than unfavorable criti- 
cism. As the truth of the Copernican system was 
gradually confirmed, the so-called conflict between 
religion and science became intensified. There 
was a clash with the letter of Scripture at every 
point. But now under a symbolic and evolutionary 
interpretation, the latest and most rational cosmic 
philosophy is in full accord. 

There is a so-called science of Nature which is 
materialistic, unspiritual, and agnostic in character, 
but this is evidently diminishing and does not rep- 
resent the best thought of our own time. The 
naturalism of the seventeenth century which pre- 
sented the universe as a cold mechanism and man 
as an infinitesimal part of the same, continues in 
the materialism of the present time, though in a 



THE BIBLE AND NATURE 5 1 

more complex and refined form. It virtually in- 
terprets life as a series of physical sensations. 
But philosophical idealism furnishes a spiritual and 
religious basis which inspires and uplifts humanity 
and counts life, not as mere animated matter, 
but as mind and spirit expressing itself through 
material phenomena. The term, Nature, should 
be rescued from a formal, inert heartlessness with 
which it is associated by certain minds which are 
pessimistically inclined. Nature, as defined in the 
realm of sense, is secondary and subordinate to 
mind. The Divine Mind and Spirit is not Nature, 
but is within it rather than apart from it. Its 
processes are the object-lesson of Divinity in out- 
ward expression. God is Spirit, and Nature is 
spiritual. 

" God of the granite and the rose, 
Soul of the sparrow and the bee, 
The mighty tide of being flows 
Through countless channels, Lord, from Thee ; 
It leaps to life in grass and flowers, 
Through every grade of being runs, 
While from creation's radiant towers 
Its glory flames from stars and suns." 

The grand object of life is soul growth. The 
study of Nature, and of God through Nature, is a 



52 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

powerful means toward that end. All our en- 
vironment is crowded with lessons, experiences, 
and problems for our education and development. 
Nature is responsive. She is a mirror which sends 
back truthfully our own reflection. She is filled 
with traces and symbols of the Divine Mind, and 
includes the legitimate forces which may lead the 
soul to gratitude, love, and reverence. Adversity, 
prosperity, grief and joy, and all the natural ex- 
periences of life take man's measure, and furnish a 
gauge of his progress. 

The religion of the Bible is in the highest de- 
gree natural. The Sermon on the Mount fits the 
constitution of man. "Through Nature up to 
Nature's God," expresses a normal process, a di- 
rect highway. The artificiality of religion as pre- 
sented, and its introduction as an exotic from the 
outside has drained it of abounding vitality and 
shriveled its beauty. " Consider the lilies of the 
field." With man, Nature is a sharer of the One 
Life which pulsates through all things. She is 
our relative, even though yet in a lower stage of 
development. If we make her the depository of 
the riches of our souls, aesthetic, poetic, and spiri- 
tual, she will pay us back in our own coin with 
compound interest. Her inclusive opportunities, 



THE BIBLE AND NATURE 53 

circumstances, beneficences, and disciplinary ex- 
periences may lift us higher, simply by our own 
permission. 

" Earth's crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God : 
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes." 

The exuberance of spiritual vitality — the divine 
immanence — translates itself to our senses through 
forms, colors, and chemistries. As the spirit of 
Nature and the genius of the Gospel have the 
same source, they must be in perfect accord when 
understood. The term, natural, is often used in 
a misleading sense, as defining what is baser, and 
as the antithesis of what is spiritual. Thus, St. 
Paul speaks of the "natural man," meaning the 
sensuous or carnal selfhood, in contrast with that 
which is spiritual and divine. But it is evident 
that it is not the material organism, per se, which 
is censured, but only its rule and abuse. To be 
spiritually developed is not to be out of true pro- 
portion, but in the highest degree normal and 
after the divine type. 

A rounded spiritual vision should include the 
inspiration which is found in the Bible, and that 
which is awakened by the objective universe. 



54 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Nature is the larger " Word of God." Its rhythm 
marks his omnipresent and pulsating life which 
unfolds every leaf, paints every flower, warms the 
sunshine, and shimmers in the sea. By a habit which 
is almost universal, we dwell upon secondary and 
intermediate things and look upon them as real 
forces. To delve deeper for what is primary and 
causative would yield a far richer return, and con- 
fer a sense of unity instead of separateness, of har- 
mony rather than discord. Each delightful object 
in nature is but a letter in the great open volume 
of the universe. Beauty is more than mechanical 
regularity, or even symmetry. Things are beauti- 
ful in the highest sense only as our consciousness 
grasps their responsiveness to a spiritual fashion- 
ing. The thought of the life and soul of a rose, 
and of its inner motive and ideal, far transcends 
its mere color and proportion. It is eloquent as 
an expression of the beauty of the Divine Mind. 
And in the deeper analysis, its life and soul is the 
real rose rather than the material which it has 
grasped and erected into the graceful form. Who 
can be an atheist and thereby conclude that the 
rose grows by chance, or even in consequence of a 
force or law which is blind ? Beauty has an inner 
meaning and is fitted to human appreciation. 



THE BIBLE AND NATURE 55 

The human soul is thrilled with joy and glad- 
ness in the simple recognition of a constant divine 
manifestation. As our physical organism is di- 
rected and molded by the soul within, so is the 
whole realm of Nature permeated and vitalized by 
the warmth of Omnipresent Love. The Bible 
assumes that Nature is its orderly counterpart. 
They are the internal and external sides of our 
Revelation. The intimate correspondences and 
unisons of the noumenal and the phenomenal, of 
the esoteric and exoteric, of the centre and the cir- 
cumference, form the gamut of a theme which runs 
through the whole Bible. Its accompaniment 
flows through the complicated drama of Job, its 
theme is woven into the songs of the Psalms, it 
appears before the glowing vision of the Hebrew 
prophets, and substantially lives in the teaching of 
Jesus in the Gospels. The poetry and symbolism 
of the Bible stand out with living meaning to the 
receptive soul, while literalism withers its spon- 
taneity and vitality. All truths are stays and re- 
enforcements to Truth. To support a noble edi- 
fice every column is needed and must occupy its 
rightful place. The processes, vitality, and evolu- 
tion in Nature are also as fully recognized in the 
Written Word as are its beauty and sublimity. 



56 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Both are inherent in the soul and in the outer 
world, and each is necessary to the other. All 
the voices of Nature and the music of the spheres 
have a message of Divinity. 

" The heavens declare the glory of God ; 
And the firmament showeth his handiwork. 
Day unto day uttereth speech, 
And night unto night showeth knowledge. 
There is no speech nor language ; 
Their voice cannot be heard. 
Their line is gone out through all the earth, 
And their words to the end of the world. 
In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, 
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, 
And rejoiceth as a strong man to run his course. 
His going forth is from the end of the heaven, 
And his circuit unto the ends of it : 
And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. 
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul : 
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the 

simple. 

The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 

heart : 

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening 

the eyes. 

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever : 
The judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous 

altogether." 

And again in the 104th Psalm, there is a 
dramatic picture of God in his world : 



THE BIBLE AND NATURE 57 

" Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment ; 
who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain : 

Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters ; 
who maketh the clouds his chariot ; who walketh upon 
the wings of the wind : 

Who maketh winds his messengers ; his ministers a 
flaming fire : 

Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should 
not be moved for ever. 

Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a vesture ; 
the waters stood above the mountains. 

At thy rebuke they fled ; at the voice of thy thunder 
they hasted away. 

They went up by the mountains, they went down 
by the valleys, unto the place which thou hadst founded 
for them. 

Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over ; 
that they turn not again to cover the earth. 

O Lord, how manifold are thy works I in wisdom 
hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy 
riches. 

Yonder is the sea, great and wide, wherein are things 
creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts." 

And in the 65th Psalm, the Fatherly benefi- 
cence and exuberance: 

" Thou crownest the year with thy goodness ; and thy 
paths drop fatness. 

They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness : and 
the hills are girded with joy. 



58 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

The pastures are clothed with flocks ; the valleys 
also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, 
they also sing." 

To the inspired vision of the Hebrew prophets, 
Nature was alive with the divine immanence and 
was but a thin veil to soften the glory of his Pres- 
ence. Isaiah, the greatest of the seers, makes her 
animate and joyous with praise : 

" For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with 
peace : the mountains and the hills shall break forth 
before you into singing, and all the trees of the field 
shall clap their hands. 

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and 
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree : and 
it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting 
sign that shall not be cut off." 

In the Gospels, Jesus made Nature eloquent in 
parable, metaphor, and poetic interpretation. The 
fowls of the air, the lilies of the field, seed-sowing 
and harvest, the storm, the sea, the sky, the wil- 
derness, the trees of the wood, leaves and fruits, 
sunshine and tempest, with the whole face of 
Nature, were standing suggestions and enforce- 
ments of truth. The processes of Nature corre- 
spond to the developments in the soul, the latter 
being a higher counterpart. 



THE BIBLE AND NATURE 59 

Advancement in the concept and meaning of 
Nature from the earlier to the later writings is 
marked. From the anthropomorphic ideal of God 
as infinite physical force working the universe from 
without, to a growing appreciation of Nature as a 
vast pastoral symphony of praise and rejoicing, and 
of God as a spiritual indwelling Father, was a great 
forward movement. With much poetic and drama- 
tic symbolism in the earlier ideals, there was want- 
ing that broader realization of divine love, beauty, 
and perfect adjustment, with which the truer esti- 
mate stirs the soul. Human fellowship with Nature 
and a translated unity and goodness through her ex- 
pressions, were not clearly perceived until Jesus 
brought them to light. Grandeur and sublimity 
mingled with fearfulness must give place to divine 
intimacy and intuitive concord. 

But the spontaneity and sociability of Nature, 
as interpreted by the Prophet of Nazareth was 
destined to become clouded and misinterpreted. 
Through a dogmatic and literal rendering of the 
Sacred Writings she at length came to be regarded 
as cold, prosaic, and gloomy. During the long stag- 
nant era between the days of the Primitive Church 
and the Renaissance, inspiration through Nature 
almost ceased. The somber asceticism and formal 



60 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

austerity, which like a pall wrapped the Middle 
Ages in gloom, obliterated all the joyousness and 
friendliness of the visible creation. Nature was 
unsanctified and unclean. Men everywhere saw 
their own inward being accursed and dogmatically 
condemned, and this was naturally reflected back 
from without. Humanity was in disgrace and 
beauty in an eclipse. Mistaking the way to be- 
come holy, men barred themselves into desolate 
cells and looked upon bare walls, and put God's 
green fields out of sight. The Almighty was stern 
and unlovely, and his works could not be otherwise. 

When religion shapes itself into a formal institu- 
tion, a conventional, prescribed service under eccle- 
siastical dictation, it becomes rigid in form and 
feeble in inner potency. Scholastic definitions 
made by priestly orders and enforced by authorita- 
tive ceremonial displace and smother a soulful in- 
spiration and spontaneous vitality. ; 

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from 
whence cometh my help." Let us climb toward 
the summits of spiritual aspiration and breathe 
their pure and invigorating atmosphere. What a 
narrowing of the great, untiring channel of Revela- 
tion to confine it to one book, and to the ancient 
time ! After some revelations to a few devout men, 



THE BIBLE AND NATURE 6l 

is it reasonable to think that God withdrew himself 
and shut off that " Spirit of Truth " which " light- 
eth every man that cometh into the world " ? Has 
the "still, small voice" been silenced, and is the 
devout and aspiring soul of to-day, which is recep- 
tive to the divine revelation, chronologically too 
late ever to feel the divine presence ? Is there but 
one " Holy Land," or, rather, is not " every land a 
Palestine"? Is religion an historic fruit, sealed 
and preserved in a single receptacle for our spiri- 
tual sustenance, or is it a living and abounding per- 
ennial ? Whichever way we turn, we may see God 
through the medium of his works. Read the great 
volume of Nature, solve the problems of history, 
interpret the significance of events, penetrate to 
the recesses of the human soul, and everywhere we 
find the Divine Mind in some form and process of 
expression. 

All divine truth should have a fundamental 
place in the life, philosophy, and even science of 
to-day. Materialism has hidden the mainspring 
of human evolution, and even declares that it does 
not exist. If we cannot find God in our hearts 
and homes ; if not in the field, forest, and the 
shimmering sea ; if not in the bursting seed and 
the blooming flower; if not in the busy occupa- 



62 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

tion and the silent hour ; if not in human exper- 
ience, somber or bright ; if not in the sweeping 
current of social and individual life; if not im- 
manent to-day and here, we may look in vain in 
the manger at Bethlehem, on the shores of 
Galilee, or even the hill of Calvary. If we must 
have miracles of attestation, let us look at the 
working of divine forces at the present time, as 
well as those which are embellished by tradition 
and mysticism. We keep the doors of our own 
consciousness, and may unwittingly permit eternal 
life and truth — to be put away on storage — 
within the precincts of our own souls. 

The Word is made flesh. The invisible and 
spiritual translates itself into the visible and ma> 
terial. Are our eyes keen enough to penetrate 
the veil, even though it be so thin ? Wherever 
we find a human soul which breathes forth a 
divine quality, a book which lifts our thoughts 
from the mundane to the celestial plane, character 
which impresses good by simple contact, poetry 
which kindles aspiration, loving ministry which 
heals and soothes prevailing woes ; there, in some 
fitting and peculiar translation is the larger " Word 
of God." 



IV 
THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 

The Bible is a great word-picture in mosaic 
designs of the Ideal. Its infinite variety of char- 
acter, history, experience, precept, judgment, and 
life, under many conditions, have one meaning and 
converge to unity. From the beginning of the 
Old Testament to the ending of the New, there 
is a constant grading upward — terrace above 
terrace — toward the Absolute. Every inspired 
writer strives to climb the slope from the lowland 
actual of his own time and environment, toward 
the Ideal, and to mark out the path for his gener- 
ation. His own soul is filled with a radiance 
which he fain would communicate. 

It is a common impression that that which is 
called ideal, defines not only the unknown but 
the unreal. But the higher trend of modern 
thought would identify it as the ultimate real. 
Perhaps no term has been more abused. It is 
often employed, not only as the antithesis of real- 
ity, but as signifying what is illusive and even 

63 



64 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

purely visionary. " A barren ideality " is often 
said of something to express contempt. Eminent 
makers of fiction, interpreters of ethics, and even 
of religion, often pride themselves upon their 
realism. Its thinly concealed definition is mate- 
rialism rather than that which is truly real. There 
is a higher thought called idealistic realism. But 
many will not yet admit that the Ideal is the high- 
est and most deeply real. The abode of conven- 
tional realism is within the realm of the physical 
senses. But validity more correctly belongs to 
the unseen. Saint Paul affirms that the things 
which are seen are temporal, while the things 
which are not seen are eternal. The Ideal is a 
vision of the Infinite. " The pure in heart shall 
see God." This is no mere platitude or poetic 
sentiment, but scientific and psychological truth. 
We may increasingly feel our superiority over 
matter, or rather a sense of rule over external 
conditions. Our ideal is a keen tool, and by its 
skillful wielding we may carve the surface of out- 
ward conditions into high or low relief. 

The kingdom is within you, is the recognition 
and affirmation of the Ideal, by the greatest of 
idealists. The divine image is there enshrined, 
but men have but a feeble consciousness of that 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 6$ 

supreme fact. It follows that the new education 
needs to be that of the consciousness as well as 
the intellect. The Prophet of Nazareth put aside 
the prevailing forms of worldly wisdom and his 
teaching was entirely that of inner ideals. His 
method has puzzled the reformers of all ages. 
He recognized the inherent power of subjective 
creations and always began at the centre. He 
realized the futility of superficial effort and always 
dealt with the realm of causes, the noumenal 
rather than the phenomenal. 

When human thought and consciousness are 
lifted higher, outward corresponding expression 
follows. There are many ideals, but only one 
Ideal. It is that toward which we are always ap- 
proaching but never fully reach, the indefinable 
Ultimate. It is as if everything in the whole cos- 
mos — man included — were not fitted into its nor- 
mal place, had not yet fulfilled its mission, but were 
in earnest search for adjustment. The ideal is the 
universal drawing power. Evolution with its pres- 
sure and friction may push from behind, but it lacks 
gentle persuasiveness. 

Our yearnings, our visions, our unsatisfied at- 
tempts to peer down the vista of the future all 
come from our insatiable quest for the perfect. 



66 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

We often speak of an ideal object, as a picture, 
statue, or person, in the sense of denning superior 
merit, but such idealism is only relative. Nothing 
is ever fully realized. The final completeness re- 
cedes and keeps in advance because its mission is 
to draw and therefore its power is formative. He 
who holds it is its subject and is being conformed 
to its own image or likeness. This comes not from 
any sudden influx but like the rings of growth in a 
tree. Psychologically considered, the simple con- 
templation of ideals is helpful. 

The whole purpose and trend of the Bible is to 
hold up the ideals of the spiritual life. It is not to 
draw attention to itself, but it comes to lift what is 
in us. It is a service book. It includes material 
of every kind, negative as well as positive. As the 
sculptor strives to release the beautiful statue from 
the block of crude marble within which it is im- 
prisoned, and as the creator of fiction gradually 
evolves the hero or heroine from unpromising 
material, so the subjective artist essays to bring his 
objective activity into more complete conformity to 
the inner model. Every one has a potential angel 
within, the release and development of which is a 
matter of interminable pains and perseverance. 
The persistence of the divine life in man is accom- 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 6/ 

panied by an unending series of lower deaths. 
Former ideals are cast aside like broken pottery, 
their life and utility being ended. 

The divine in man is the same in essence as God, 
but his consciousness of the fact is but infantile. 
It is best so. Man is made for eternal growth. 
If in due season one ideal were not replaced by a 
larger one, it would mean stagnation, even for an 
archangel. The poet often sings of eternal rest, but 
passive idleness is not human. Absolute content- 
ment is abnormal. A certain " divine dissatisfac- 
tion " insures perpetual growth. The light which has 
been kindled in the soul is never to be extinguished. 

The Ideal is that intangible truth and reality for 
which man hungers and thirsts. He fails to in- 
terpret his own restlessness. He is delving among 
lower models while he encloses the higher. Dis- 
appointment will continue until the loftier is sought 
out and awakened. Order is not found in things 
but must be set up in one's own soul. 

Human life on the present plane consciously be- 
gins with simple physical sensation. The individual 
is a bundle of unending possibilities, attainable only 
by an ever-increasing proportion of the spiritual, as 
compared with the sense consciousness. From the 
early base of material sensation, the soul is ever 



68 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

making experimental and educational excursions, 
higher, and yet higher. But that is only the train- 
ing of what has been implicit from the beginning. 
To go upward is to go within. The soul which is 
bruised and depressed by rough contact with the 
world may retire within itself to the divine centre 
and commune with the indwelling God. There, 
and there alone, it can sit face to face with the 
Ideal and have a vision of perfect love and spiritual 
freedom. " Men may rise upon the stepping-stones 
of their dead selves to higher things." One finds 
satisfaction only as by aspiration he surpasses him- 
self. 

The soul has true creative power. It is always 
making itself over, and virtually makes its own 
objective world. The same material environment, 
to different observers, may be bright or dark, in 
fact, living or paralyzed. The difference is due to 
varying inner reflection or re-formation. Aspira- 
tion may become a cultivated habit. In the corri- 
dors of the soul the ego can set up statues or hang 
pictures of its own designing. There they seem to 
breathe and live. The potential artistic power has 
no limit. The technique of the professional de- 
signer may wane, but the skill of the unseen genius 
increases. 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 69 

The Bible, under a spiritual interpretation, points 
toward the Ideal. Scholastic dogmatism renders 
the book dry and unattractive. The realism of the 
letter hides its inner light. In order that the fine 
gold of its ideals may be assimilated and trans- 
muted into living spiritual manifestation, they are 
presented in a great variety of combinations and 
conditions, shown at all angles and in different 
lights, and tested in their adaptation to unlike ages, 
races, nations, and forms of government. Through 
them the divine principle flows into the lives of 
rich and poor, learned and ignorant, high and low, 
and its quality is exhibited in all stages of progress, 
from the tender shoot to full maturity. Its mold- 
ing power touches life on every side. Emerson 
wisely says that, " A man is a bundle of relations, 
a knot of roots, whose flower and fruitage is the 
world." 

Who can fully define the Ideal ? Shall its absolute 
and relative elements be love, goodness, truth, and 
beauty ? All. The divine perfection is wholly 
inclusive, a rounded sphere. While the Ideal 
abstractly is perfection, the human aspect must 
ever remain relative. Though the Abstract is un- 
knowable and unattainable, its influence upon life 
is all important. The dominant element in the 



70 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

ultimate Pattern is love — love universal. But this 
encloses a noble group of subordinates. Love in- 
cludes and energizes beauty, truth, and goodness. 
Beauty is more than shapely form and symmetrical 
proportion. It is the spirit of harmony in expres- 
sion. It grasps inharmony, recreates and idealizes 
it, possesses it with order and fills it with soul. 
Again we are brought back to the subjective. 
Beauty is a reflection of what is in the beholder, 
hence it is primarily a soul quality. Even art 
cannot be objective for all outward beauty is 
only a work of art. Different observers may 
clothe the same graceful statue with purity or 
voluptuousness. 

Truth is the ideal of conformity to law, the nor- 
mal type. When the soul has realized the truth of 
nature and art, it is their conqueror. The love of 
right, justice or sincerity is both instinctive and 
an inspiration. " Man was made to look upward," 
says that delightful modern mystic, Maeterlinck : 

" We all live in the sublime. Where else can we 
live ? That is the only place of life. And if aught 
be lacking, it is not the chance of living in heaven, 
rather is it watchfulness and meditation ; also, perhaps, 
a little ecstasy of the soul. Though you have but a 
little room, do you fancy that God is not there too, and 
that it is impossible to live there, in a life that shall be 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 71 

somewhat lofty ? If you complain of being alone, of 
the absence of events, of loving no one and being un- 
loved, do you think that the words are true? . . . 
All that happens to us is divinely great, and we are al- 
ways in the center of a great world." 

; The Ideal which dwells in the soul is the thought 
of oneness with divinity, a native attraction of a 
man towards his Source, a coherent aspiration 
Godward. The ultimate and highest Good is an 
eternal magnet — that totality of all moral and 
spiritual completeness which defines the Eternal 
Spirit. 

The ideal of the divine in human form we call 
the Incarnation. It is the conjunction of the two 
which become one, made materially manifest. The 
one supreme fact thus named gains its significance 
because it testifies of a universal law. It is not 
abnormal or super-normal, but a natural develop- 
ment. The ideal of the rose is to blossom, and in- 
carnation is the fulfillment of destiny. Every law, 
by correspondence, has application up and down, 
as well as upon its own plane. There is a spiritual, 
as well as material gravitation, and the tides of 
high life are as well defined as those of the great 
deep. The life of nature as well as inspiration in 
man, moves towards an ideal. 



J2 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

« In buds upon some Aaron's rod 
The childlike ancient saw his God ; 
Less credulous, more believing, we 
Read in the grass — Divinity. 

" From Horeb's bush the Presence spoke 
To earlier faiths and simpler folk ; 
But now each bush that sweeps our fence 
Flames with the Awful Immanence ! " 

What a costly mistake has been the substantial 
isolation of Jesus ! Such was not his purpose. 
The Christ consciousness has often been intro- 
duced as a formal stranger. Man has been authori- 
tatively proclaimed as incapable and depraved. 
Thus the mirror-like normal Model which he has 
held before himself, has been marred. 

Truth, in fact, is inoperative until it is vivified 
into an ideal. Then it lives. It matters little, as 
a fact, or event, whether or not William Tell ever 
existed. But the heroic virtue and patriotism en- 
closed in the story has ever been a molding force 
in Swiss character and in a general love of liberty. 
The ideal outweighs a thousand events. History 
is meaningless unless it lives. " Let the dead 
bury their dead." There is much evidence that 
the thought of a Western Continent loomed 
strongly in the European consciousness before 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 73 

Columbus actualized the fact. The ideal preceded 
and projected the event. Do not hide the ideal 
behind dry and superficial happenings but burnish 
it and bear it aloft. Let every one mark deeply 
his specification, and conformity to the drawing 
will increase. A corresponding law lives and 
moves upon the physical plane of expression. 

The relative value between circumstance and law 
is especially marked in the biblical literature. A 
bare historic episode may be one of many expres- 
sions of truth, but, of itself, it is too narrow to 
sustain the full superstructure. A vital principle 
must also root in the living present. The spiritual 
marrow of the Bible is mostly contained in poetic 
and idealistic form rather than in letter and history. 
It may be that "facts are stubborn things," but 
often they are dead and dry barriers — precedents 
in the path of progress. How the flowing imagery 
of many of the psalms uplifts and inspires ! 
Modern indifference to the Bible is largely the 
result of an undue emphasis which has been placed 
upon occurrences whether true or uncertain. In- 
spired truth inspires. There is a strange inclina- 
tion to burrow near the surface rather than delve 
for ultimates. The unsatisfactory nature of con- 
ventions and ready-made ruts is evident, for spiri- 



74 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

tual verity is original and spontaneous in the soul. 
"The truth shall make you free." 

Ideals project themselves across the vista of the 
future. The soul must look forward. While the 
lessons of the past may be profitable for reproof 
and educational discipline, they are but auxiliary. 
History is full of tethering-posts to which truth 
has been tied and obstructed. The low-vaulted 
past is not inspirational, though it furnishes the 
kindling which, when ignited, lights up the forward 
highway. What we have suffered and survived is 
consumed in the furnace of life in order that its 
energy may be transmuted into spiritual newness 
and vigor. Let us smile upon the coming time 
and it will respond with a greeting to us. If the 
body gives signs of infirmity let us not forget that 
we are not bodies, but unfolding souls. The youth- 
ful and optimistic temper will not permit mental 
rigidity, spiritual lethargy, or a religion of exclusion. 

Never before in the world's history was there so 
clear an understanding of human inspiration. 
With research penetrating unwonted fields, with 
knowledge marvelously expansive, with philan- 
throphy more scientific and practical, and with 
hopefulness systematically culivated, we hail the 
new time with joyful anticipation. We may pitch 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 75 

a tent for a night in the field of retrospection but 
do not let us make it a residence. Learning as we 
do through contrast, the very mistakes of former 
years should lend a new impetus to our advance. 
The man of to-day is great in proportion to the 
obstacles which he has overcome. Jacob, with a 
strained thigh, wrestled all night with the adver- 
sary and became a new man and was given a new 
name. He who has little faith in himself is likely 
to have but a feeble faith in God. The divine in- 
dwelling is the supreme and only remedy for the 
ills of life. Paul was a true idealist : " Rejoice 
alway. ... In everything give thanks." Such 
a spirit transforms tribulation, sweeps away pessi- 
mism and makes the world over. The "new 
heaven and new earth " are ideals capable of reali- 
zation. As " Alps on Alps arise," so summit after 
summit of spiritual attainment lifts its head before 
us, and each furnishes a vantage ground for a 
victory over the next. 

To be, forms the basis of to do. While the 
seer, to our minds, is mainly associated with the 
ancient time, he is more than ever needed to-day. 
Said Archimedes of ancient Syracuse : " Give me 
a fulcrum on which to rest and I will move the 
earth." But Emerson, the modern idealist, found 



y6 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

a fulcrum to move a greater world than that of 
matter. 

The Bible, as a great living unity in variety, 
seeks to enthrone the Ideal in man. In one of 
our former books ! a brief enumeration of some of 
the idealistic elements of the sacred Scriptures was 
made for which liberty is taken in their quotation. 

" The Inspired Book touches every life in its full 
breadth and at every point. That supreme spiritual 
aspiration and God-consciousness that illumined men 
of old will inspire men of to-day. Those great divine 
sources and springs have not lost their power to kindle 
new life. The history of the Jewish nation is a grand 
drama, the ever-shifting scenes of which portray vice 
and virtue worked out in character and life, each to its 
legitimate result. With natural, free interpretation of 
the Book, its light will grow clearer and broader, and 
it will be an ever-unfolding source of inspiration to 
human life." 

The Bible is instinct with the idealism of the 
ancient time. Each successive generation catches 
its living glow anew. Its truth is old, yet ever new. 
Its inner significance expands under new condi- 
tions and combinations. Changing applications and 
adjustments take place, but its beams of light will 
continue to shine on generations yet unborn. 



1 " God's Image in Man," Lee and Shepard, Boston. 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 77 

Those things which have served their purpose 
make the soil for new planting. As the mists of 
early morn dissolve and disappear when the sun 
arises, so the modern atmosphere wipes out dog- 
matism and scholastic self-sufficiency. There is a 
subtle integration and disintegration active at the 
same time. The traditionalist feels that the very 
foundation stones are crumbling, while those which 
are to replace them are not yet evident to him. 
But be courageous, for while the old is slipping 
away, there is growing in human consciousness 
a greater faith, a grander religion, and a mystic 
revelation of the Ideal. He who has been con- 
tent with the theory of an occasional interposition 
of the infinite hand of a far-away Deity, may 
awaken and find himself in a beautiful and orderly 
universe, with the sense of the Immanent One 
within himself. Reverently speaking, God is 
brought home. What a discovery and inspiration 
in such a transition ! As Mont Blanc towers up 
above the horizon to the approaching traveler 
grand and indescribable, so the Ideal lifts its sym- 
metrical and awe-inspiring proportions to thrill his 
being. It is not isolated, but all-inclusive. The 
explorer finds himself in a social universe where 
everybody and everything is his relative. Instead 



78 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

of separation there comes a new sense of unity 
and universal friendliness. He finds even that 
every throb of pain, every heavy cross, every 
frown of fate, and every pathetic event, has some 
educational and beneficent fruit. It fits into a 
larger and even a universal plan. Even so-called 
death is but a new birth into higher life and larger 
opportunity. Out of the cruder expression grows 
one more sublimated, refined, and glorious. But 
the Ideal makes its presence felt only to him who 
opens his eyes. 

Idealism is scientific in a true sense. Truth is 
an all-inclusive unit, and science, or exact truth, 
cannot be fenced off and limited to the material 
realm. There can be no higher proof of any prin- 
ciple than that it fits the constitution of man. He 
is the universal unit of measure. If a proposition 
is adjusted to the soul and satisfies every craving, 
it cannot be false. Even the nature of divinity is 
to be gauged by humanity. There is a rapid trend 
in science from materialism toward spiritual refine- 
ment. As accurate research digs deeper, evi- 
dences of design and unity are multiplied. The 
analytical by-paths in all directions finally converge 
toward a grand synthesis. Every discovery and 
development lends additional proof to the proposi- 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 79 

tion that what should be, is. By such an assump- 
tion, Laplace worked out the elimination of what 
had been regarded as the uncertainties and irregu- 
larities of the solar system. The hypothesis of 
what is ideal prepares and points out the way to 
the scientific actual. Science may be defined as 
demonstration. It is the ideal coming into appear- 
ance. In the mind it is the instinctive recognition 
of truth. Not merely one Word, but every word 
is made flesh. Real construction is from mind 
stuff rather than material protoplasm. The truth 
we have with us, but the greater truth is always 
a little in advance. If the shepherds of Chaldea 
saw a near-by star which told a story, how much 
greater the wonder which confronts the modern 
astronomer in the nightly starry host his camera 
registers and which he catalogues. 

There are ideals for the race, nation, and world, 
as well as for the individual. They have trans- 
forming and molding power. Note one or two 
specimens of the many in the Bible. " They shall 
beat their swords into ploughshares, and their 
spears into pruning hooks ; nation shall not lift up 
sword against nation, neither shall they learn war 
any more." (Micah iv, 3) "And the wolf 
shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie 



80 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

down with the kid; and the calf and the young 
lion and the fatling together; and a little child 
shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall 
feed ; their young ones shall lie down together : 
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the 
sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and 
the weaned child shall put his hand on the basi- 
lisk's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all 
my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of 
the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover 
the sea." (Isaiah xi, 6-9) "Finally, brethren, 
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatso- 
ever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be 
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on 
these things." (Philippians iv, 8) Such ideals 
cannot be too often repeated. Psychologically, 
they are kept bright and prominent by reitera- 
tion. The Pattern, when steadily held aloft, glows 
before the mind like a beacon light. If one fully 
occupy himself with the good, evil at length be- 
comes a negation. As positive reality lights up 
the soul, the negative shadows dissolve to their 
native nothingness. 

The goal for the individual soul is the higher 



THE BIBLE AND IDEALISM 8 1 

or spiritual consciousness. The term "cosmic 
consciousness" is one which some have recently 
employed to represent the supreme Ideal, and it is 
very suggestive. It signifies the recognition not 
merely of a material order but of a spiritual 
totality. The fragmentary things of life and of 
the universe are rejoined and repaired, the fogs 
and shadows dissolve, and the rough places are 
made smooth. It is an intelligently cultivated 
feeling — nay, vision — not merely of nature and 
mass, but of a cosmos of Mind, Spirit, and Love. 
It involves soul responsiveness to the largest 
and highest environment. Divinity is our own. 
Through oneness and receptivity, we let it print 
itself upon us. 



BIBLICAL POETRY AND FICTION 

Any revelation, to be a real revelation, must be 
adapted to the inner conditions of the recipient. 
Blot out what is poetic and imaginative from living 
literature, and the more inspirational and soul- 
moving part would be gone. These forms of 
writing have a warmth and depth of appeal un- 
equaled by what is prosaic, and must be regarded 
as effective vehicles for religious truth. It is in- 
herently impossible for a mind of plain severity to 
assimilate the divine exaggerations of the poet, or 
to enter his rich creative realm. Some careful 
observers think it a matter of doubt whether it is 
possible for the Occidental mind ever to fully 
comprehend the Oriental, and we should remember 
that the Bible is wholly a Book of the East. 

Not merely great learning, but nothing less 
than the cultivated imagination is well equipped 
to sift the divine precious metal from the 
human dross which ages of ignorance and cre- 
dulity have fastened upon the Scriptures. The 

8* 



BIBLICAL POETRY AND FICTION 83 

destructive literalism, which the stern but con- 
scientious orthodox believer reads into the Word, 
is found quite as often and as strong among his 
prosaic destructive critics. Though radically in 
opposition, at this point they agree. Scepticism 
and even atheism is largely caused by the posi- 
tive lack of the poetic imagination which is so 
exuberant in Holy Writ. 

If there be some reluctance to the admission of 
the value of poetic form as a channel for Scrip- 
tural truth, what shall be expected of the fictional, 
which, in reality, is one of the most effective means 
it is possible to employ ? It is not its mission to 
mystify or exaggerate, but to awaken and interest. 
If it does not light up the plain substance of what 
is real, it does not serve its purpose. The most 
fertile domain of the soul is that of the emotional 
nature. 

Our Western temperament of sharp outline 
cannot well appreciate the necessity of the more 
fanciful or figurative method of teaching, and 
that imaginary stories, or fables, often bring home 
the most weighty principles. The parable, which 
was one of the most telling of the methods em- 
ployed by Jesus, under literary classification 
belongs in the department of fiction. The instru- 



84 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

merits to reach the heart of man need to be fitted 
to his most favoring approaches. 

The poetry of the Western World has two 
leading forms of expression which are known as 
rhyme and metre. Without at least one of these 
we do not distinguish it as poetry. But Hebrew 
scholars assure us that the range of the poetry of 
that language is vastly wider. It possesses a 
subtle and graceful rhythm, but neither rhyme 
nor metre is essential. Syllabic correspondence 
and measurement for distinctive poetry were not 
essential to the Hebrew ear. In the deeper sense 
that which is truly poetic depends not upon verbal 
uniformity, but proportion of the romantic and 
idealistic quality. It is the subtle designing of 
the imaginative faculty which introduces its subject 
most deeply into truth and the divine mysteries. 
It is the charming office of poetic art to paint 
symmetrical pictures in the mind, and these are 
often far more truly educational than any bald 
presentation of logical truth. There is a dramatic 
atmosphere to that which is imaginative, which 
invests the plain substance of principle and makes 
it live before the soul. 

How uplifting and inspiring the poem of the 
Twenty-third Psalm, and yet as measured by 



BIBLICAL POETRY AND FICTION S$ 

prosaism, how little of it is strictly true! The 
whole book of Psalms is inherently a series of 
graphic sketches, deftly drawn, and rich in fancy, 
and the Proverbs and Job are exuberant in imagin- 
ative light and shade. Many other biblical books 
also contain songs, reveries, visions, rhapsodies, 
and flowers of speech. Both the major and minor 
prophets often break forth into poetic and exultant 
strains and give full rein to what a sober realist 
might call extravagance. The great lesson which 
the Occidental Christian needs to learn from East- 
ern sacred lore is enthusiasm, and not much less, 
spiritual entertainment. The logical doctrinaire, 
dealing with hard fact and sharp discrimination, 
should become more plastic and responsive. The 
man of the West puts little warm devotion into 
his religion, and gets no great joy out of it. It is 
vastly more of a duty than privilege. If the 
spiritual and religious stratum in man be the high- 
est in his constitution, it should be the seat of the 
play of his finest soul forces. 

Must the drama, the most powerful of all 
teachers, be forever confined to what is frivolous, 
or at the best, only of the material order ? What 
a field, almost wholly unoccupied, for a higher 
creative art ! The unsatisfied spiritual hunger 



86 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

for inspirational and dramatic activity of a lofty 
quality, is the direct cause of occasional outbreaks 
of fanaticism. The poetic fancy of men demands 
an outlet, and if that of the higher order be sup- 
pressed, it will burst forth in low and illegitimate 
forms. It is beginning to be widely recognized 
that if the Church is to increase or even hold its 
present influence, it must absorb and utilize many 
forces which it has discouraged or barred out. 
The human consciousness can no longer occupy a 
compartment by itself. The drama is the natural 
kindergarten for the adult, and human nature is so 
insistent upon its visible exercise that it will take 
realism from below, if denied the idealism of a 
purer atmosphere. 

In the King James version of the Bible the text 
of the poetry of the Bible is all printed in the 
prosaic form, so that there is no outward mark of 
difference for the indiscriminative reader. But in 
the English version of 1884, and in the new Ameri- 
can standard version, published in 1901, the Books 
of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, and Song of Solomon 
are rendered in modern poetic form. The same is 
also true in occasional outbursts of a similar spirit 
in other Books, an example of which may be noted 
in Isaiah, chap, xxxviii. Dr. A. W. Hitchcock, in 



BIBLICAL POETRY AND FICTION S? 

his very valuable work upon the Bible, says, re- 
garding Hebrew poetry : 

"It is the reflection of inner states, and of the effect 
which nature and experience have upon the soul. 
It is subjective rather than objective and didactic, 
lyric rather than descriptive or dramatic. . . . Mind 
and matter, brought together, produce philosophy ; 
fancy and matter, invention ; muscle and matter, labor ; 
spirit and matter, religious expression such as we have 
in the Old Testament. The Hebrews were not phil- 
osophers, nor inventors, nor toilers, but they could not 
help expressing themselves in the Psalms." 

The narrative of the Creation in Genesis may be 
designated as a pictorial imaginative sketch of the 
harmony, mystery, and divine completeness of the 
Eternal Intelligence. Its purpose is not to inform 
the understanding or impart cosmic knowledge, 
but to inspire and uplift the soul. Poetry need 
not be regarded as ornamental or embellished 
literature, but as inner truth expressed in artistic 
form. It appeals to the feelings of the heart 
rather than the reason of the head. It is spiritual 
experience cast in emotional or recitative measure. 
The prevalent almost unconscious translation of 
the poetry of the Bible into hard fact or " frozen 
truth" has been very harmful to its usefulness 
and right interpretation. 



88 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

A good example of Oriental teaching through 
imagination of the fictional variety is found in the 
Book of Judges (ix, 8-15). 

" The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king 
over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign 
thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them, 
Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they 
honor God and man, and go to wave to and fro over 
the trees ? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come 
thou, and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto 
them, Should I leave my sweetness, and my good fruit, 
and go to wave to and fro over the trees ? And the 
trees said unto the vine, Come thou, and reign over us. 
And the vine said unto them, Should I leave my wine 
which cheereth God and man, and go to wave to and 
fro over the trees ? Then said all the trees unto the 
bramble, Come thou, and reign over us. And the 
bramble said unto the trees, If in truth ye anoint me 
king over you, then come and put your trust in my 
shadow : and if not, let fire come out of the bramble, 
and devour the cedars of Lebanon." 

A strong simile of the varieties of human char- 
acter, of current events of the time, and prophetic 
of their outcome. 

The Book of Jonah is undoubtedly fable rather 
than history. Whether or not the brief story has 
any historic background, the main purpose — the 
teaching of great moral principles through hyper- 
bole — is entirely evident. Through an imagina- 



BIBLICAL POETRY AND FICTION 89 

tive story, it is graphically taught that the clear 
call of duty cannot be evaded or left behind with 
impunity. When the " word of the Lord " comes 
distinctly to us, demanding active conformity, it is 
in vain that we flee away. An attempt to evade 
the divine obligation is tantamount to absolute 
denial. Anger and selfishness also receive a stern 
rebuke from the voice of God in the soul. The 
story is not that of the strange adventures of a 
man, but of the varying impulses of the heart. 
All phases of character are brought into a focus 
of light by the dramatic handling of imaginative 
material. 

To interest and arouse the childlike tempera- 
ment of the Eastern races, the picturesque method 
of teaching is indispensable. Dr. K. C. Anderson, 
in his most valuable and interesting work, " The 
Larger Faith," observes : 

" What we are to see in the narratives of the Nativ- 
ity is the religious imagination of the first Christians 
endeavoring to construct for their already idealized 
Messiah a fitting dramatic entrance into the world. 
To suppose that angels literally articulated to the 
shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem that the Messiah 
had been that day born, that the heavens were literally 
opened, disclosing a multitude of the heavenly host, 
and that there was literally sung, audible to outward 



90 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

ears, the words of the Christian anthem, ■ Glory to 
God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward 
men,' is to take all poetry out of the exquisite narra- 
tives, and to lose the fine spiritual truth which comes 
home to the imagination and heart of man. Not only 
is it not true that to make these narratives the poetical 
vestments of sublime truths is to reject them as worth- 
less, it is only when we cease to regard them as bald 
statements of outward facts, and treat them as poetry, 
as drama, that we preserve them for religious use. 
For historical criticism will continually protest against 
the former interpretation, and the common sense of 
men will continually reject it. The account of the 
star — wonderful, mystical — of the wise men traveling 
far from the east, of the angels looking down from 
heaven and singing wondrous songs, is not history, but 
poetry." 

The imagination is the great inspiration of life 
and takes hold of things unseen and eternal, while 
formal fact and logic meet with a much feebler re- 
sponse in man. The absence of faith and optimism 
in moral and spiritual things is a radical limitation. 
No "day of Pentecost" could ever be the result 
of mere prosaic statements, even though they be 
facts. The ideal must be in advance of present 
realization. The creative and soul-moving forces 
of religion reside in the beatific zone of conscious- 
ness. Some philosopher has said : " Let me make 
the songs of a nation and I care not who makes 



BIBLICAL POETRY AND FICTION 91 

its laws." The Christian consciousness far trans- 
cends the influence of the historic confession. 
Hymnology, whether pure or faulty, has done far 
more in shaping religious belief than the whole 
consensus of theological dogmas. In the great 
evangelistic tours of Moody and Sankey through 
the English-speaking world it is probable that the 
service of song, in its power upon men, far out- 
weighed that which came from exhortation. The 
great anthems, oratorios, chorals, and even the 
single voice — each at favoring times and seasons 
has melted the hearts of multitudes. Scores of 
thousands were enraptured and uplifted beyond 
measure by hearing the greatest of modern vocal- 
ists sing, "I know that my Redeemer liveth." 

Eloquence and the art of oratory, even when not 
directly exercised upon poetic themes are essen- 
tially poetic in their nature. Why are they so 
little in evidence in the modern presentation of 
the gospel ? Doubtless the prosaic and material- 
istic trend in life is so general that a greater 
degree of feeling and Oriental method would seem 
to be out of accord. How few in the modern 
ministry read the Bible in public with power ! 
A clear and finely modulated voice is almost a 
poem in itself. The truth needs more eloquent 



92 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

and fluent presentation, and it is to be hoped 
that the decline in oratory may be arrested. Ex- 
pressive delivery with the charm of intonation, 
gesture, and impressiveness should be revived, for 
these are far more important than theological 
scholasticism. The genius who has the imagina- 
tive art to light up truth and paint it in attractive 
garb possesses a molding power upon the hearts 
of mankind to which the distinctive logician can- 
not aspire. The Christianity of bare bald doc- 
trine may exist but must struggle to live. 
! Intellectual self-sufficiency disparages the intui- 
tive faculty, and sometimes even denies it a place. 
Applying this discrimination to the doctrine of the 
Resurrection, a very prominent clergyman has well 
observed: "If the resurrection of Jesus is made 
so material and historic as to eclipse the spiritual 
Jesus (Christ), if he is made so local and temporal 
as to be a mere idol of the ever-living and ever- 
present Emanuel, there is religious decadence and 
not progress." If the human soul is to be 
"saved," those who are to engage in the work 
first of all should study its approaches, its features, 
its methods, and the kindling of its native forces, 
instead of directing their attention almost wholly 
to objective fact and dogma. An engine may be 



BIBLICAL POETRY AND FICTION 93 

never so perfect in every detail, but until the steam 
is applied in conformity with its own working laws 
it is as useless as so much junk. 

To consider the stories of the Creation, the 
Garden of Eden, the Deluge, and Noah and the 
Ark, as legendary, symbolic, or even mythical, 
gaining through them a higher interpretation, is 
not to disparage the Bible but to honor and illumi- 
nate it. No enemy of the Scripture and the true 
gospel could damage them more than their avowed 
friends who mistake the poetic and imaginative 
method of teaching for the hard outline of truth. 

If the "Word of God " is to flow into souls and 
shape itself to their vacancies and needs, it must 
be rendered in plastic rather than rigid form. The 
very primal purpose of divine truth is to fit itself 
to man, and it is spiritual tragedy to crowd upon 
him that which he cannot assimilate. The great 
variety of literary style and the diversity of light 
and shade combine to give it a unique charm. 
Its grand truths are rendered variously adaptable 
and graphic through poetry, fiction, hyperbole, sar- 
casm, metaphor, and anecdote. 

The writers who have most influenced the world, 
whether biblical or otherwise, are those who have 
been profoundly imaginative. They are not dreamy 



v. 



94 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

or impractical souls but of creative ability and use- 
ful activity. They point out not only underlying 
laws, but also have glimpses of the ideal and per- 
fect in the ultimate meaning of things. The work 
of the imagination, well done, is true art. There 
is unity, harmony, and proportion of detail, and 
the summing up is beauty. The Bible is a Book 
of spiritual inspiration and delight. It presents a 
kaleidoscopic vision of life, and its pattern " in the 
Mount "..serves as a pillar of cloud by day and of 
fire by night. The imagination is preeminently 
a religious faculty, but how largely in practice it 
is relegated to a lower range ! Strip prosaism 
from life and the Bible, and their inherent charms 
will draw all men and win their hearts. 

" I slept, and dreamed that Life was Beauty, 
I woke, and found that Life was Duty. 
Was my dream, then, a shadowy lie ? 
Toil on, sad heart, courageously, 
And thou shalt find thy dream shall be 
A noon-day light and truth to thee." 



VI 

THE MIRACULOUS AND THE 
SUPERNATURAL 

The miraculous and supernatural, as descriptive 
of events, and as terms of classification, are each 
used with distinct and differing definition. Further 
misapprehension is often added by their inter- 
changeable employment. Much disagreement nat- 
urally results which would be preventable if men 
took more care to understand each other accu- 
rately. What is a miracle ? From the simplest 
definition of the word, only a wonder, that which 
is strange or unusual to the observer. But as 
specifically used, it formerly conveyed the idea of 
some occurrence which is a result of direct divine 
interposition, and which is above or beyond the 
domain of orderly law. Although such a signifi- 
cance is rapidly diminishing, it still lingers as a 
sentiment in many minds. 

What is the supernatural ? In reality only the 
higher zone of the natural ; that which belongs to a 
more subtle and refined realm, but yet which is as 

95 



96 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

normal as that which is subordinate. It properly 
includes that part of the great Whole which is 
spiritual and unseen. In rank and relation it is 
above materiality. The supernatural — above the 
natural — depends upon what is meant by the nat- 
ural. It is unfortunate for the cause of truth, and 
clear thinking, that the term, natural, has become 
limited to the realm of matter. We hear of the 
natural world in contrast with the spiritual world, 
and of the natural man as opposed to the spiritual 
man. But neither the spiritual world nor the spir- 
itual man is unnatural. If the term natural were 
used only to signify normality, confusion would be 
avoided. But prevailing dualistic thought has not 
only divided the great unity into two sections, but 
it has set them in opposition. The material and 
the spiritual are not rivals but varying manifesta- 
tions. Being divinely joined they should not be 
rent asunder. 

Religion has been defined as "a plan of salva- 
tion," a system of repair, supernatural in its char- 
acter and attested by miracles. These have been 
taken as the proofs of its divinity and genuineness. 
As performed by Jesus and his followers, they 
were regarded as certificates from above, or seals 
that their teachings were more than human. Who 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 97 

would believe without the witness of something 
miraculous ? " Show us a sign from heaven," has 
always been the human demand. Through the 
ages it has been assumed that Christianity and 
miracles were interdependent and stood or fell to- 
gether. Said Lowell, in writing of the unreason- 
able requisition for signs : 

"O Power, more near my life than life itself! 
I fear not Thy withdrawal ; more I fear, 
Seeing, to know Thee not, hoodwinked with dreams 
Of signs and wonders, while, unnoticed, Thou 
Walking Thy garden still, commun'st with men, 
Missed in the commonplace of miracle." 

The universality of law is the climax of all mod- 
ern discovery. Here and there, farther back, some 
rare prophetic soul has had a vision of an orderly 
nature of things, and such a one was Richard 
Hooker who lived in the latter part of the six- 
teenth century. In beautiful form, no less pro- 
foundly scientific than poetic, he wrote : 

" Of Law, there can be no less acknowledged than 
that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the har- 
mony of the world ; all things in heaven and earth do 
her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the 
greatest as not exempted from her power." 

The great principle that there is an orderly 
administration of the universe — reliable and un- 



98 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

varying in every detail — has been the general 
foundation for all the wonders of modern progress. 
Every one of the numberless concrete inventions 
and each application of nature's forces, and, no 
less, new recognitions of moral and spiritual truth 
which have enlightened and uplifted mankind, have 
their roots in the knowledge of the unfailing regu- 
larity of the divine order. 

If any wonderful work has ever been performed 
contrary to orderly law, then God must be capri- 
cious and the moral order disorderly. But many 
marvelous transactions have taken place in accord 
with laws with which we have been, and still are, 
unacquainted. Such an administration is reason- 
able, and confirmed in every direction ; and it is en- 
tirely unlike the dogma, so long and universally 
held, that miracles are special and unique and given 
as signs. Great changes in opinion have taken 
place, but the newer and larger views, as yet, are 
held by many but tentatively. But every manifes- 
tation in the whole material and spiritual cosmos, 
as at present interpreted by the scientific method, 
is subject to immutable law which is immanent. 
The Divine Mind and Life — the one ultimate 
Force — expresses itself through resident causa- 
tion and sequence, and is an endless chain with no 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 99 

link missing. What a burden upon faith, and its 
hospitable reception, is the belief of a spasmodic 
interference at human request, by God with his 
own beautiful and eternally established methods ! 
The apologists of the past have marred the religion 
which they earnestly endeavored to explain and 
defend. 

But on the other hand, we should not dogmati- 
cally deny the occurrence of many unusual things 
that are said to have happened, because we are yet 
unaware of the laws through which they were 
possible. We have as yet explored and mapped 
out but a mere fraction of the universal order, and 
must beware of fixing its limits in any direction. 
Deeper research will yet disclose an unbounded 
realm of natural law stretching out over the physi- 
cal, the psychical and spiritual universe as well. 
The next great step will be toward a more general 
recognition of the latter as well as the former. 
How many have yet fathomed the tremendous 
possibilities of mind and soul working in cooperative 
harmony with the Divine Mind ? How many have 
yet touched the mere fringe of the phenomena of 
spiritual healing, suggestion, faith, telepathy, visions, 
trances, and obsessions ? There is truth in every 
realm which has some fitting and beneficent use, 

1.0* e. 



IOO LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

In proportion as man becomes acquainted with 
divine method and his own hidden forces, he will 
wield numerous powers which are yet unrecognized 
and idle. The violation of those laws which are 
unknown, as well as those which are known, is 
subject to penalty. 

Who can pronounce judgment upon the miracu- 
lous occurrences which are on record in the Bible ? 
It would seem that there are two classes of minds 
which are incompetent in that direction. First, 
those who literalize, and believe in special divine 
intervention. The other class, which is as illy 
equipped to deal with the miraculous, includes 
those who at once deny the validity or historical 
accuracy of any unusual event or condition, because 
it transcends their own scanty knowledge of law, 
and is contrary to their own limited experience. 
Here are two opposing and extreme forms of 
dogmatism, and it is not easy to decide which is 
more unprofitable. The first shows an ignorant 
and credulous faith which is not according to 
knowledge, and the second a blind unbelief and 
materialism which perhaps is more barren and de- 
pressing than the surplus of superstition. 

Any study of the supernatural elements of the 
Bible from the cold and matter-of-fact standpoint 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL IOI 

of to-day, must be inaccurate and superficial. The 
ancient Hebrews were indeed "a peculiar people." 
They were not only superior, as related to the sur- 
rounding nations, in their devotion to monotheism, 
the worship of Jehovah, and through their gifted 
seers and leaders, to an unusual ethical and spiritual 
perception, but also in their remarkable develop- 
ment in mysticism, occultism, and psychology, 
theoretical and practical. The strange phenomena 
of mind and spirit, which have little attention and 
which interest but a few at the present time, formed 
a great leading pursuit and interest of life. In 
this they were not unlike the surrounding peoples, 
except that their visions, wonders, and other psy- 
chical experiences were purer and more distinctively 
spiritual than the prevailing occultism of the time. 
Such things were then universal. Intercourse with 
the subjective, and the unseen objective, was 
sought and cultivated. Visions, magic, demonism, 
clairvoyance, witchcraft, and marvels were com- 
mon, and of all grades in moral quality. Forces, 
which to the modern Occidental consciousness 
seem weird, and, with many, absolutely unreal, to 
them were so general as to be almost axiomatic. 
The " wise men " of the ancient time were not edu- 
cated in the modern sense, but were magicians in 



102 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

various orders of higher or lower degree. Signs 
and wonders mainly made up the ancient curriculum. 
Few conventional readers of the Bible appreciate 
how fully it is crowded with mysticism and occult- 
ism, and that fact makes it seem to the average 
reader a far-away book. In the human conscious- 
ness of to-day it has been detached from real life. 
Spiritual forces have come to seem nominal and 
even unreal, instead of substantial, and closely cor- 
related to those of the material realm. 

Both in the Old and New Testaments, there is 
recorded a constant series of "miracles," greatly 
unlike in moral quality, and in reasonableness as 
compared with the usual order of nature. Some 
of them seem beneficent, some cruel, some literally 
probable, and some impossible. How has the sceptic, 
and he who would be a destroyer of the Bible, 
poured contempt upon the Book because the lit- 
eralist has felt it incumbent upon him to stand up 
for the historical accuracy of the miracles which 
seem immoral and impossible ! How have the 
broader, and some of the " shining lights " of the 
Church evaded, and reasoned all around an issue 
which cannot longer be postponed ! Every day of 
the deferment of some serious attempt at adjust- 
ment, brings additional discredit upon the Scrip- 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 103 

tures. A persistent dodging of vital issues cannot 
longer be regarded as friendly to the written rec- 
ord. Any effort which is here made at clarifica- 
tion, however far-fetched or even unwise it may 
seem, has for its object a vindication, a defense, and 
nothing less. As a concrete illustration of prin- 
ciples, let us take the record of one of the plagues 
of Egypt. Exodus vii, 8-25 reads as follows : 

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, say- 
ing, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a 
wonder for you : then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take 
thy rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it be- 
come a serpent. And Moses and Aaron went in unto 
Pharaoh, and they did so, as the Lord had com- 
manded : and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh 
and before his servants, and it became a serpent. 
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the 
sorcerers : and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did 
in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast 
down every man his rod, and they became serpents : 
but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. And Pha- 
raoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto 
them ; as the Lord had spoken. 

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is 
stubborn, he refuseth to let the people go. Get thee 
unto Pharaoh in the morning ; lo, he goeth out unto 
the water ; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink to 
meet him ; and the rod which was turned to a serpent 
shalt thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt say 
unto him, The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, hath 



104 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, that they 
may serve me in the wilderness : and behold, hitherto 
thou hast not hearkened. Thus saith the Lord, In 
this thou shalt know that I am the Lord : behold, I 
will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the 
waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned 
to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, 
and the river shall stink ; and the Egyptians shall loathe 
to drink water from the river. And the Lord said unto 
Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out 
thine hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, 
over their streams, and over their pools, and over all 
their ponds of water, that they may become blood ; and 
there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, 
both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. And 
Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded ; and 
he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in 
the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of 
his servants ; and all the waters that were in the river 
were turned to blood. And the fish that was in the 
river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians 
could not drink water from the river ; and the blood 
was throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magi- 
cians of Egypt did in like manner with their enchant- 
ments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he 
hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken. 
And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither 
did he lay even this to heart. And all the Egyptians 
digged round about the river for water to drink ; for 
they could not drink of the water of the river. And 
seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smit- 
ten the river." 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 105 

There are doubtless many who still accept this 
as literal history, for the reason that it appears in 
the pages of the Bible. There are others, destruc- 
tive critics, who will utterly deny it, and a few of 
them will glory in their denial. But some exami- 
nation may show a wiser way than either. There 
are many liberal and broad-minded students of the 
Bible, writers and clergymen, whose lives have 
been given professionally to exegesis and inter- 
pretation, who avoid the leading question. It were 
far better for the Bible and its future influence for 
good in the world, if men were more courageous 
in the use of their reason. Is it possible to throw 
any light upon the transaction, the account of 
which has been quoted, by any study of the period 
at which it occurred, or by some comparison with 
known facts of the present time, or both ? 

The modern Occidental hypnotist is but a novice 
in occultism when compared with some of the 
adepts of India. But even the former is often able 
to make one, or several subjects together, see ob- 
jects and experience sensations which have no ob- 
jective reality. The wonderful demonstrations of 
necromancy and enchantment which occasionally 
are exhibited in the Orient, show that there are ex- 
tensive realms of the occult yet unexplored by the 



106 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Western World. The fuller knowledge of these 
powers seems to be closely confined to certain 
secret orders, but there is abundant evidence of 
their exercise. Visitors and long-time residents of 
India, of the most undoubted veracity and penetra- 
tion, have many times witnessed these wonderful 
illusions. An adept will, to all appearances, make 
a good-sized tree grow from the hard ground in a 
few minutes before an assembly. He will toss a 
rope in the air, and climb it out of sight. Objects 
of size will disappear and reappear before the eyes 
of keen observers, when the circumstances make 
sleight of hand impossible. The most rational ex- 
planation is, that by the wonderfully trained psychic 
power of the adept, the lookers-on are put under a 
temporary hypnotic spell. The transactions, or 
visions of them, are entirely in the mind, subjec- 
tive rather than objective. We of the Western 
World have, comparatively, but an infantile recog- 
nition or understanding of occult forces. The 
East is the home of skilled magic, and especially 
was so in the ancient time. 

Is there not a possible adjustment and correspon- 
dence between ancient and modern phenomena ? 
Back to the very dawn of history, the Accadian, 
Chaldaean, and Assyrian occultism, symbolism, 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 107 

visions, trances, demonism, and necromancy, were 
the leading accompaniments of life. There was 
little objective material or mechanical thought, but 
mystery was everywhere. Even government was 
by oracles, psychic revelations, unseen messengers 
from above and below, seer ship, and priestly inter- 
pretation. Life was shadowy, and language sym- 
bolic and mystical. Out of such an atmosphere in 
Ur of the Chaldees came Abraham, the great pro- 
genitor of the Israelite race. His visions, compared 
with those of the people by whom he was surrounded, 
were purer and on a higher plane of consciousness. 
To him, God was the great overshadowing Reality, 
and material things were subordinate. The Hebrew 
race which descended from him was bred amidst an- 
gelic and ecstatic visions which became like a native 
atmosphere to them. They lived a dreamy, subjec- 
tive life, and nature was but a veil for the unseen. 
Among them were many magicians who practised 
wonder-working, from the corruption of black magic 
up to the white magic of a pure spiritual seership. 
Men saw divinity in everything around them, but 
its moral grade corresponded with their own stan- 
dard of character. 

Bearing in mind the peculiar development of the 
age, which has been briefly indicated, may we not 



108 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

reasonably attempt an interpretation of the Scripture 
which has been quoted ? To literally turn the Nile 
into blood, with the rivers, streams, and other pools, 
together with all the water in vessels of wood and 
stone throughout the land of Egypt, is so extremely 
opposed to the whole course of nature, as we know 
it, that literalism in such a case seems utterly un- 
reasonable. But we need not deny that the ac- 
count has a meaning, and in the line of what has 
been noted, one of much depth with such a people. 
Each time that Moses brought one of the plagues 
before the mind of Pharaoh, we read that the magi- 
cians of Egypt " did in like manner with their en- 
chantments." If Moses had already turned all the 
water of the land of Egypt into blood, how could 
it at once be done again by the partisans of 
Pharaoh, and, were it possible, why would they 
do anything so destructive to their own people ? 
Everything in the narrative goes to show that, 
both in the case of Moses and the other magicians, 
what took place was an occult demonstration be- 
fore Pharaoh and his court, a vivid dramatic 
mental picture with no objective reality. For a 
limited time all the elements of reality were doubt- 
less apparent. We need not speculate as to the 
exact mingling of hypnotism and other related 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 109 

occult arts, but undoubtedly it was of that char- 
acter. The " wisdom of Egypt " was vast at that 
time, and Moses was " learned " in it all. But his 
nobility of purpose and recognition of the one God, 
gave him, as an adept, a superior power over the 
"enchantments" (note the word) of the other 
magicians. The serpent which was produced from 
his rod, or that of Aaron, swallowed their ser- 
pents. His enchantments, or psychic illusions, 
which were given before Pharaoh and his servants, 
proved their greater power, and probably a deeper 
realism. Each time, however, after the wonder- 
fully tragic vision wore off, Pharaoh changed his 
mind (" hardened his heart "), because to him 
things resumed their normal condition. 

It is not easy to put ourselves into the life of an 
age so radically different from our own, but even 
modern occultism, and especially hypnotism as 
demonstrated in India, may furnish a key. To our 
matter-of-fact turn of mind, visions and enchant- 
ments may seem purely fanciful, but they have 
occupied a large space in the world, and they may 
furnish the substantial basis for a narrative. The 
greatest obstacle to an accurate biblical interpre- 
tation lies not so much in inability, as in utter lack 
of effort to take on the local color of the period 



IIO LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

under consideration. We have well-defined ob- 
session of various qualities to-day, and our asylums 
contain large numbers of its victims whose peculiar 
malady is generally unrecognized. Doubtless it is 
the same in nature as was the possession by evil 
spirits in the days of Jesus, but the Bible is so 
distant and unnatural to our modern sense, that 
little identification is thought of. Life, ancient and 
modern, is the same so far as conditions are alike, 
and the intelligent and sympathetic study of the 
experiences of one age would shed much light 
upon those of others. 

In the narrative which has been quoted, the 
Lord is represented as having a detailed and con- 
stant conversation with Moses. Doubtless many 
still believe that it was by means of an outer voice 
which sent its vibrations to the physical ear. But 
divine communications to men must remain enig- 
matical until we are inclined to some study of a 
subjective spiritual philosophy which teaches that 
the divine and the human may have contact in 
man. God is orderly, and the truth of one age 
will be true in every other. It is conditions and 
not principles that are in a state of flux. Until 
the Bible is brought near and used as a mirror, its 
interpretation will continue to be formal and 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL III 

cloudy. The principles suggested in the solution 
of the Egyptian plague of blood may be applied in 
numberless other places in the Old and New 
Testaments with great advantage. 

The Hebrew records often refer to the prevail- 
ing sorcery, demonology, charms, and enchantments 
of the neighboring polytheistic nations as being 
lower in character than the occultism of their own. 
But there were striking correspondences. Says 
Dr. John H. Denison, in his able and interesting 
work, " Christ's Idea of the Supernatural": 

"Moreover we have here and there a hint of the 
method by which the Hebrew seers brought about the 
state of ecstasy : Sometimes, notably in the schools of 
the prophets, it was through the use of music ; again 
by gazing fixedly at the precious stones in the high 
priest's ephod. In the case of David, the king's hand 
was surrendered to a mystic guidance, which formed 
the plans of the temple. 

" In brief, we have abundant evidence of the best sort, 
because inadvertent, that the Hebrew visions developed 
under the same conditions with other occult phenomena, 
the difference being that the Hebrew occultism was far 
mightier, far more significant, and that it was devoted 
to the one God and his righteousness — a difference 
that we might naturally expect when we consider the 
colossal nature of the Hebrew organism, the singular 
coherence of its system, and the spirituality of its 
origin. There can be little doubt, therefore, that in the 



112 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

near future the Hebrew narrative, inclusive of the 
visions, will be accepted as giving us an entirely truth- 
ful and naturalistic history of the development of re- 
ligion in that age. . . . 

" Indeed, by classifying the visions of Israel with the 
same sort of occultism that appears to have followed in 
every age certain exalted souls, like Joan of Arc, St. 
Francis, Savonarola, George Fox, Martin Luther, and 
even lesser personalities when thrown into a state of 
exaltation, we can retain the whole portraiture of these 
Old Testament heroes, precisely as Keim preserves the 
whole of St. Paul's biography, including his ecstatic 
vision of the risen Christ, without sacrificing either in- 
tuition or logic. It corresponds to the structure of the 
cosmos that under certain conditions there should be 
occult phenomena. Magnify the conditions by a 
thousand years of peculiar environment, natural selec- 
tion, and specialization, and you may expect a transcen- 
dent kind of occultism compared with which everything 
else of the kind will be a mere dwarf or abortion." 

That which is mystical wears that aspect because 
of our ignorance of the psychical law under which 
it is produced. There is an infinitude of truth, 
especially in the esoteric prerogatives and practices 
of the soul, to which our eyes have not been opened. 
If we ourselves cannot induce a vision or ecstasy, 
shall we ignorantly affirm that none ever existed ? 
How many give any deep attention to the cultiva- 
tion of " spiritual gifts " ? How many ever feel 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 113 

the vibration of the secret Logos, the Divine Voice 
in the garden of their consciousness ? How many 
worship in the inner temple and kindle a flame 
upon its sacred altars ? Beyond all other needs, 
in this modern period of the rule of sense, is that 
of spiritual illumination. 

The Hebrew nation was led for centuries, not by 
objective worldly wisdom, but by oracular commu- 
nications, visions, and subjective guidance. The 
prophetic element, so strong in the Chosen 
People, was never without eminent exponents, 
leaders who were channels for psychic and spiritual 
direction. Does it seem likely that the pillar of 
cloud and the pillar of fire which went before the 
Children of Israel in the wilderness were visible to 
the senses, or were they symbolic of spiritual 
guidance ? Perhaps the latter, as a higher direct- 
ing Force, might be no less unerring and beneficent 
than the former. Modern materialism mistakes 
the substance for the shadow, and vice versa. 
Does the beauty and validity of the Transfiguration 
depend upon the altitude of the soil upon which it 
is symbolically located, or was it an unusually lofty 
and vivid inner experience ? Was it the physical 
or spiritual bodies of Moses and Elias which gave 
evidence of their presence on that occasion ? The 



114 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

woes of the world are mostly due to the prevailing 
unbelief in spiritual reality. To the ancient Is- 
raelite, visions were not only common but they had 
a deep meaning. A saint in retiracy may experi- 
ence a vision without an external correspondence, 
but hardly so, a nation for many centuries. An 
ideal, in proportion to its intensity, seeks outward 
expression and correspondence. It craves embodi- 
ment, or to be "made flesh." 

Students of occult lore claim that for centuries 
Greece was influenced and mainly ruled by the 
deliverances of the Oracle of Delphi. It is also 
thought that the Jewish Ark of the Covenant was 
modeled after the Egyptian Holy Chest of Oracles. 
There is a negative and seeming reverse side to 
every true principle. Sensuous and degrading 
charms and enchantments are abuses of the nor- 
mally pure spiritual illumination. The counterfeit 
or the base alloy proves the existence of the genuine. 

Among the leading events of the New Testa- 
ment which seem to be contrary to universal human 
experience, are the virgin birth of Jesus, with his 
physical resurrection and ascension. These are 
incidental, and in no real sense do they affect the 
solid basis of vital Christianity. They belong to 
the realm of dogmatic interpretations which are, at 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 115 

least, non-essential, and they may be left for further 
light without any positive denial. These claims 
are not unique, for they have clustered around the 
personality of the messiahs and founders of other 
great religious movements. If the narrative of the 
nativity be spiritually symbolic, without a natural 
outward correspondence, it is not easy to see the 
relevancy of the genealogical line of descent which 
is so carefully given in Matthew. To make funda- 
mental spiritual truth, which the world needs and 
is hungry for, utterly dependent upon a single in- 
terpretation of an outward event, is a dangerous 
dogmatism. Eternal truth cannot be bound up with 
creation in six days, the story of the talking ser- 
pent, the arrested sun, or Jonah and the whale. It 
has an infinitely broader and surer basis. It is fair 
to say that but few now go to such an extreme. 

The credentials of truth are found in the soul of 
man. Truth stirs and awakens the religious nature, 
and the sayings of Jesus, even before he uttered 
them, were there deeply inscribed. But he was 
the transparent medium through which they flowed 
and were made personal in expression. The per- 
petuity of the whole cosmos is dependent upon 
laws which some suppose are set aside by what 
miracle has been used to define. 



Il6 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

" For hearts the beautiful that feel, 
Whose pulse of life beats strong, 
The opening heavens new light reveal, 
1 Glory to God ' their song. 
While bursts confession forth, 
That since the world began 
No miracle of earth 
E'er matched the heart of man." 

The miracle, as the definition of what is wonder- 
ful all about us every day, is very fitting. How 
mysterious, as well as beautiful, the daily changes 
and phases of nature, the moods of the sea, the 
aspects of the sky, the golden sunset, and the sim- 
ple opening of a flower ! How marvelous the 
orderly action of the subtle forces of electricity, 
and of the etheric medium in which we live, and 
their employment in, and adaptability to human 
service ! What a miracle to the untutored mind 
would be the express train, the electric car, the 
telephone, and many other things of daily use ! 
"Familiarity breeds contempt." In all cases the 
wonder about phenomena depends upon the stage 
of development. The simplest thing is wonderful, 
but to be so to our consciousness it must be un- 
familiar. In reality there are no miracles. The 
sequences of the moral order may be relied upon. 
Even were the great Exemplar of law and truth 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 117 

able to be unique, it would seem natural that he 
should honor the law by entrance upon, and exit 
from this plane of existence in the usual way. 

But tradition has woven a fabric of mystery and 
miracle around the personality of all her saints, 
prophets, and heroes. Nothing is intentionally 
misrepresented, but expectation fulfills itself. The 
objective falls into line with the subjective, for 
imagination is creative. The adorer of the mar- 
velous paints his ideal in his own high color and 
does not omit a halo. Many of the wonderful 
works of Jesus are losing their strange aspect as 
the knowledge of the higher law broadens. In our 
own time, remarkable cases of healing are becom- 
ing common. The potency of mind over matter, 
of the systematic holding of ideals and of the 
assertive possibilities of the spiritual selfhood, are 
even yet but faintly appreciated. Who can fix any 
final limits to the power of the divine and human 
cooperation ? 

With every enlarged concept of nature and the 
cosmos has come a grander and more worthy ideal 
of God. Oh, the faithful preachers of the Word, 
within whose minds has raged the conflict between 
the light which " lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world " and the supposed loyalty to ordi- 



Il8 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

nation vows and obligations ! Did Jehovah ever 
capriciously perform miracles to please his partisans 
and destroy their enemies ? How would that cor- 
respond with the direction of Jesus, to " love your 
enemies " ? Some of the modern apologists are 
reversing their former ideas about miracles. They 
are no longer the credentials of Jesus, but he is 
their credential. If he were "very God" we are 
told that all things should be expected. But it is 
not explained why many of his followers, who were 
ordinary men, performed the same works after him. 
"Greater works than I have done ye shall do." 
If God's laws and methods which work through 
man, were available in the first century, they should 
be equally so in the twentieth. When the higher 
law commands one which is lower, there will always 
be surprise to the common consciousness. It is not 
a violation but only an orderly dominion. The 
forces of the spiritual realm are superior to those 
of the psychical, and the latter to those of the ma- 
terial. It follows that the soul should dominate 
the body, and any inversion of this order causes 
disturbance. In all the zones of the whole cosmic 
order, from the lowest elemental to the supreme 
spiritual, there is a beautiful and normal subordi- 
nation of each to those which rank higher. 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 119 

At a certain age, the growing curiosity of a 
child causes him to take delight in the imaginative 
realm, where giants and fairies dwell, and, in a 
way which is somewhat correspondential, when 
the sense man first enters into the spiritual con- 
sciousness the new explorations have a strange 
and miraculous color. Laws of which he has been 
unaware are unveiled. To the immature com- 
prehension wonders are continual, but the higher 
the development the less the surprise at the 
Unusual. Ignorance mingles the miraculous with 
its spirituality and religion. 

Nearly all the great religions, in their primitive 
days, and as taught by their founders, were simple 
in their purity. Only as they became corrupted 
and in decline did they take on superstition and 
fanaticism. But the followers of these great 
original souls have grouped wonders about their 
names, real or imagined. The undue desire for 
the phenomenal and the passion for astral or psy- 
chical marvels, tend to obscure the simple truth. 
If one tries to pose as an adept, or occultist, 
or to captivate by hypnotic power, it is wise to 
avoid him. The occult is not necessarily spiri- 
tual, and may be lacking in purity. Beware of 
the professional miracle-worker ! The works of 



120 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Jesus were characterized by simplicity and natural- 
ness. 

In modern mysticism there is much that is 
alluring but not always profitable. Does it tend 
toward greater goodness, purity, love, and other 
divine ideals ? There is that which is called 
spiritual which may be unspiritual. The hypno- 
tist who puts his subject on exhibition for spec- 
tacular purposes, gain, and the gratification of the 
instinct for the marvelous, is using an undoubted 
power for ignoble ends. • 

Intelligence and spiritual earnestness will shape 
matter in conformity with its own ideals. Who can 
fully explain the process? How could Jesus per- 
form wonders of healing, or pass with his post- 
resurrection body through closed doors ? Not by 
the employment of any laws which the materialist 
will admit, for the knowledge of Jesus and of every 
lesser prophet belongs to his own level. The 
miraculous is purely a relative term and has no 
absolute significance. Lower sequences are not 
repealed but simply directed. The latent and 
legitimate powers of the soul have hardly begun 
to be discerned. 

We have occasional glimpses of transcendent 
powers and capabilities. In proportion as we 



MIRACULOUS AND SUPERNATURAL 121 

make ourselves at one with the higher law, it lends 
us its potency. Gaze steadily upward, and the 
strangeness which is first apparent will gradually 
wear off, and beauty and contentment take its 
place. The miraculous quality is not inherent in 
events, things, or the Bible, but in the vision of 
the beholder. 



VII 

THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET 

Two great and unlike phases of religious life 
mainly make up the Old Testament Scriptures. 
One relates to priesthood, with its functions, their 
exercise and ritual, and the other includes the 
messages of those preachers of righteousness who 
are called prophets. In the evolution of the re- 
ligious life and its expressions, each has its place 
and time, and both were important factors in Juda- 
ism. The distinctive force of both continued in 
the early Christian Church, though they were 
in some degree merged so that the demarcation 
was not so sharp. While none of the writers of 
the New Testament are called prophets, yet all 
except the authors of the synoptic Gospels — who 
were more specifically narrators — were essentially 
prophetic teachers. 

In the religious advancement of a nation — and 
the same is true of mankind in general — the priest 
comes first in order. His office is lower in rank 
and is concerned with earlier and more primitive 



THE PRIEST AND THE PHOPHET 123 

development. His work is especially with those 
who are dependent and require teaching and lead- 
ing, and for such as would worship by proxy, and 
through outward forms and rites. There is a 
period in religious growth when the soul shrinks 
from direct contact with God, and, in great degree, 
delegates its worship and craves a " go-between." 

Priesthood, as exercised in fixed rules, or- 
dinances, and sacraments, may become formal, 
and even mechanical. In the observance of pre- 
scribed ritual there is a tendency toward an undue 
emphasis upon the form, and often an unconscious 
absence of the vital and inner spirit and meaning. 
A ceremonial law may easily lead to bigotry, so 
that there comes a blind dependence upon an out- 
ward shibboleth, which is not deeper than mere 
intellectual conformity. To the degree that pre- 
scribed methods are authoritative and obligatory, 
faith in and love to God become secondary. Paul 
contrasts reliance upon the law, in its external 
sense, with grace, which includes in a comprehen- 
sive term, love and inner faith. The, " Thou shalt 
not " of the moral law is but the shell which en- 
closes the real gospel, and until the same is pene- 
trated and sweetened there is little of that liberty 
which makes men free. While it is manifestly 



124 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

better to keep the moral law in a perfunctory way 
than to violate it, love and faith may lift the soul 
above the law so that it is no longer its master. 

The officialism of priesthood is its unattractive 
side, but in the degree that it becomes natural, 
sympathetic, and devoted to ministration, its office 
is vital and essential. Undeveloped man, in pass- 
ing through the bewildering mazes of earthly life, 
craves guidance and sympathy, and until he de- 
velops prophetic quality so as to go directly to the 
divine fountain he must get some supply through 
a human channel. A somewhat common pre- 
judice against priesthood arises from a too exclu- 
sive view of its more formal and ceremonial 
phases. But until the great majority of men 
get more religious self-poise, some real piloting 
through shallows and quicksands is indispensable. 
The Church should be a school, and her teach- 
ing offices ought not to be eclipsed by ritual and 
ordinance. 

To the soul of feeble spirituality, God is to be 
known through man — Godlike man. To the de- 
gree that the official priest is the natural priest 
and helper, his soul conveys divine blessing and 
even forgiveness. He is the electric wire which 
completes a circuit for the conveyance of spiritual 



THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET 125 

energy. No man should come between God and 
the soul unless he makes himself transparent and 
forms a connecting link. With all the Protestant 
prejudice against the Roman confessional, when 
purely administered, it touches a deep spring in 
the heart of the halting and uncertain penitent. 
But the office of the confessor is a most sacred 
one, for, to its subject, it approximates that of the 
Almighty. The priest cannot forgive sin, but 
upon true penitence, he can, as a divine proxy, 
pronounce the outward word of pardon as expres- 
sive of an accomplished inner act. But loving 
human nature, without the insignia of officialism, 
as it has opportunity, can perform the natural 
priestly function to his brother man. He can 
pour in the balm of forgiveness and even pro- 
nounce conditional absolution. 

The true exercise of the priestly office is not de- 
pendent upon ecclesiasticism and is not confined to 
any line of descent. Inspiration and rich blessing 
may flow from any ministering soul to another re- 
ceptive one. Selfishness produces isolation, where- 
as all good is social in its fundamental nature. 
Repentance and the higher choice remits, or puts 
away sin, and the fact and the law may be pro- 
nounced, as was so often done by Jesus : " Thy 



126 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

sins are forgiven thee," so man to his fellow-man 
may make the same announcement. But it is the 
inner condition and not the pronouncement which 
forgives. This principle cannot be stated too often. 

There is a sense in which neither God nor man 
can forgive, because the true putting away must be 
an individual act and become an accomplished con- 
dition. God's forgiveness is always existent and 
waiting for application. On his part it is a stand- 
ing principle. So of the man who forgives his 
neighbor. 

But forgiveness must not be construed to signify 
an immediate blotting out of punishment. Trans- 
gression leaves scars, even if forgiveness be com- 
plete. The full measure of the cure for the 
violation of divine law is a matter of inner re- 
nouncement and growth. Though immediately 
potential it is of gradual consummation. So far 
as you are concerned, you may at once forgive the 
thief who has stolen your property, and even shield 
him from outward punishment, but it remains for 
him to forgive himself. 

Under the old Dispensation, the priest ministered 
at the altar and officially presided over the sacri- 
fices, rites, and full ritual of the temple. It was a 
sensuous form of worship, fitted only to the needs 



THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET 127 

of a childlike and primitive people, and the element 
of true spirituality was only partial and incidental. 
The devotion of men must proceed from their own 
plane of life, and in a certain sense truth must be 
diluted to their own quality and capacity. While 
truth in itself cannot be cheapened, it must have 
local adjustment to be of avail. Babes must be nour- 
ished with milk rather than with " strong meat." 

The prophetic office comes not from ecclesias- 
tical preferment or official position. To be born a 
Levite, with due formalities added, might make a 
priest, but it could not constitute a prophet. The 
true prophet is the product only of a divine process 
within himself. Every preacher of righteousness 
of every age, who is a law-giver, and in advance of 
his generation, is truly a prophet. The name is 
not in modern usage, but the office never will be- 
come obsolete. Every religion has had its prophets, 
so that ancient prophecy was not limited to the 
Hebrew nation. But in Israel it was more pure 
and righteous than elsewhere. But even among 
the Chosen People there were prophets of many 
grades. Those of the lower order, often called 
seers or soothsayers, possessed peculiar psycho- 
logical powers and were subject to trances and 
visions, but in some measure they doubtless spoke 



128 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

the " word of the Lord." However, such occult 
powers and experiences were not uncommon among 
all prophets, and they were especially in evidence 
with Paul, the greatest prophetic character of the 
New Testament. As the prophet in all ages is 
preeminently the man of inner states, we are not 
warranted in our modern disparagement of visions, 
trances, and ecstasies, and are mistaken if we re- 
gard them as essentially and necessarily abnormal. 
The Bible is full of the accounts of such experiences 
in connection with its most eminent characters. 
Human nature to-day is the same in essence and 
inner laws that it has been in the past, but in its 
prevailing activities it actually seems to have grown 
more superficial. With all our boasted education 
the present age is sorely in need of the typical 
prophet. Subjective divine illumination is rarely 
linked with a profusion of technical objective 
knowledge. How many make much earnest effort 
to make themselves channels for the " word of the 
Lord " ? How many value inner guidance more 
highly than outward worldly wisdom ? 

The history of the Hebrew nation and of the 
world makes it appear that prophets have been 
"raised up," or have come upon the stage just 
when their peculiar messages have been impera- 



THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET 129 

tively needed. When emergencies have come 
upon nations or races, the great leader or dis- 
cerner of truth has suddenly appeared and been 
found at the front through a divine force of natural 
selection. Through evolutionary law, no less di- 
vine because evolutionary, supply and demand meet 
and satisfy each other. The crisis or dilemma al- 
ways calls out the fitting instrument whose office 
is that of a way-shower. Prophecy may be simply 
defined as spiritual insight. As this is turned in 
an outward direction, it also interprets external con- 
ditions and clearly predicts their logical outcome. 

The prophet, whether ancient or modern, is 
only the man of eminent interior development. 
He does not come by way of special or unique ap- 
pointment, either human or on the part of the un- 
changeable Lawgiver, but as the result of higher 
development and conformity to law. To regard 
him as a special selection by God through an 
arbitrary choice, as was often believed, is entirely 
unwarranted. God has no favorites. But those 
who in eminent degree open themselves to his 
leading, and feel his presence in their souls receive 
corresponding endowment. 

The great prophets of the Hebrew nation, such 
as Isaiah, Amos, and Jeremiah, with others of less 



130 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

prominence, were like a series of beacon lights in 
a considerable period of darkness and spiritual de- 
clension. With the more distinctive prophetic 
power, they were patriots, philosophers, and ethical 
leaders. The teaching of Ezekiel was peculiarly 
through symbolism, visions, psychological figures, 
and flowers of speech. All the prophetic charac- 
ters were bold leaders in righteousness in the 
midst of an unresponsive or opposing environment. 
Mingled with their admonition and expostulation, 
were rich promise and optimism. Each bore aloft 
his high ideal for the people to whom he brought 
the divine message. Their prevision of the future 
was not that of any special and miraculous kind, 
which with exactitude foretells specific events, but 
rather, in general terms, they set forth the logical 
and inevitable outcome of qualitative life and 
conduct. 

The prophet was an unconventional character. 
Misunderstood and unappreciated by his immediate 
associates, he was a stranger among his own people. 
He saw and described that which was beyond their 
range of vision, and to them was a dreamer and per- 
haps fanatic. Rarely was he permitted to witness 
his own final vindication. Persecution was often 
meted out to him by those who thought they were 



THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET 131 

doing God a service. He lived for coming gener- 
ations. The Prophet of Nazareth was the great 
Ideal and culmination of the Hebrew prophetic era. 

The prophets of all ages are the world's heroes. 
Their utter unselfish devotion to truth, however 
unpopular, and their walk by faith rather than 
sight, set them apart as the choicest spirits of 
human history. They are sensitive souls, so 
attuned to spiritual laws that they can read clearly 
the "signs of the times." Verily they have their 
reward. Says an eminent writer on the prophets 
of Israel : " The whole history of humanity has 
produced nothing which can be compared in the 
remotest degree to the prophecy of Israel. 
Through prophecy, Israel became the prophet of 
mankind." 

There is often an unwarranted inclination to read 
backward and to match events which have occurred 
or are expected, with the recorded words of some 
prophet. The cause of the event is not the fact 
that some prophet uttered something of which it 
may seem a fulfillment. This tendency was preva- 
lent among the writers of the New Testament nar- 
ratives. " That the prophecy might be fulfilled," 
was a frequent expression. Such is not the true 
interpretation of the prophetic spirit. It is not 



132 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

fatalistic. Even when seemingly specific it is based 
upon conditions. The many attempts which have 
been made to concretely resolve and apply the 
prolific symbolism of Daniel and Ezekiel to material 
events, past or to come, have proved uncertain and 
visionary. There is a prevalent insistence upon 
historic and outward interpretation rather than the 
purely spiritual illustration which is intended. 
While the Bible is full of subtle and mystical sig- 
nificance, and while many characters or events 
stand for some truth or principle, there is a strong 
tendency among a certain class of minds to make 
simple prophecy unduly cabalistic and occult. 
Religion has thus been burdened by many fanciful 
and material conclusions, which, without any good 
reason, have been drawn from prophetic symbolism 
of purely spiritual import. In the first chapter of 
the Acts there is recorded a prediction made by 
two men "in white apparel" that this Jesus " shall 
so come in like manner as ye beheld him going 
into heaven." There are those who with the best 
of intent materialize this truth and insist that Jesus 
in flesh and blood is again literally to descend from 
the clouds and set up a kingly and physical reign, 
and they are anxiously looking for the time. Is 
heaven in the nearby clouds and sky ? Jesus said 



THE PRIEST AND THE PROPHET 133 

(Luke xvii, 20-21), " The kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation : neither shall they say, Lo, 
here ! or, There ! for lo, the kingdom of God is 
within you." Also in the last verse of the last 
chapter of Matthew, "I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world." The spiritual Jesus 
(Christ) is continually coming in the consciousness 
of his followers. 

It was the object of the prophets, from the least 
unto the greatest, to teach the truth simply, rather 
than to mystify it. But Oriental metaphor and 
simile were the necessary modes of teaching for a 
people whose habit of thought and expression was 
essentially symbolic and poetic. Graceful and 
elastic flowers of speech when frozen into rigid 
western prose often become misleading. 

No two of the prophets of the Old Testament 
were very like, and there was no sameness in their 
messages. The "Word of the Lord," of each, was 
colored or humanized by temperament, environ- 
ment and idiosyncrasy. The utterance of the 
prophet was free, so that he was not a mechanical 
mouthpiece. While he was spiritually indepen- 
dent, there was no radical impairment of the real 
message. Each preacher of righteousness received 
the divine "white stone" of truth, in which his 



134 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

own name was written in secret, and he found in 
due time some who gladly received his tidings. 

After the days of the greatest Hebrew prophets, 
Isaiah, Amos, Micah, and Hosea, who appeared dur- 
ing or about the eighth century B.C., vital religion 
declined and formalism and ceremony prevailed. 
The letter of religion killed its spirit. When 
Jesus the supreme Prophet came, ceremonialism 
was universal, and the prophet was practically 
extinct. For four hundred years no prophet 
worthy of the name had arisen in Israel, and only 
the lower phase of priesthood prevailed. Mere 
ritual had become fully idolized. 

But the hard crust was to be broken up, and 
religion, from being " a valley of dry bones," clothed 
with spirit and life. The gospel of the Christ was 
to burst the bonds of the Hebrew race, to emerge 
from national limitation and be potentially opened 
up to all humanity. Jesus sowed the seed of 
the new gospel, and Paul scattered it through 
all the then known civilized world. 

The prophet, modern as well as ancient, is the 
hope of the world. Through him divine truth is to 
be shaped to human need and to "leaven the 
whole lump " of mankind. 



VIII 
THE HIGHER CRITICISM 

What is known as the higher criticism, includ- 
ing also, technically, the lower criticism, is doing 
a great work in the emancipation of the Word 
of God. The severance of artificial bandages 
and bonds, the rational removal of a destructive 
literalism, the revelation of a true inwardness, 
with a rescue from conventional bibliolatry, in- 
clude a wide movement of great spiritual benefi- 
cence and importance. The truth, which in a 
great variety of setting is contained in the Bible, 
is not only being discriminated but given free 
course. 

The day of destructive criticism by opponents 
of the Bible has well-nigh passed, and with the 
decay of an inerrant literalism will lose its motive 
and foundation. The modern criticism which has 
been designated by the term higher, is, sub- 
stantially, friendly and constructive. It is the 
work of the truest friends of the Bible and not of 
its enemies. 

*35 



136 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

The higher criticism is the study of the Bible 
in the history and spirit of the time which pro- 
duced it. What was the life, and what the pre- 
vailing thoughts, motives, inspirations, and ideals, 
of the biblical authors ? The literature of any 
specific period — and the biblical literature is 
no exception — is a living transcript of its life 
and thought. It is no easy matter to step into 
the shoes of a long past generation, see with its 
eyes, hear with its ears, and take on its local 
color. It requires not only superior talent but 
deep insight. It presumes temporary detachment 
from present environment, and the exercise of the 
imaginative and intuitive temperament. All this 
is indispensable to a correct interpretation. Few 
in any age are able to thoroughly understand any 
other period, especially if it be far removed from 
their own. The great current of historic develop- 
ment must be intelligently traced and surveyed. 
The higher criticism was hardly possible, in any 
degree of completeness, before the general under- 
standing of the doctrine of evolution. The theol- 
ogy of any period corresponds with, and is fitted 
into, its science, philosophy, astronomy, physics, 
and biology. Thus the higher criticism must 
include a profound knowledge of human nature, in 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM 137 

itself, and all its outward relations. The psy- 
chology of the age to be dealt with, must be 
grasped, and also the unique subjective and 
objective idiosyncrasies pertaining thereto. In 
no other way can its surviving traditions and the 
underlying motives of its culture and literary re- 
mains be discriminated. The higher critic re- 
quires a rare equipment, and the modern era has 
been fortunate indeed in the reverent, constructive 
and conscientious spirit of the great majority of 
those who have served it in this supremely im- 
portant department of research. 

While the spiritual endowments and delicate 
prevision of those who pursue the lower criticism 
are not so indispensable in its nature, yet they 
require able discrimination and special literary 
ability. This research is in a direction more 
purely intellectual, philological, and technical. 
Its field more distinctly concerns the dates, authen- 
ticity and genuineness of the subject matter, the 
comparison of various teachings, their identifica- 
tion by literary quality, their unisons, differences, 
style, racial, and chronological peculiarities, and 
accuracy of translation and rendering. It will be 
observed that the higher criticism is mainly con- 
cerned with the spirit, while the lower is more 



138 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

especially devoted to the letter, or the vehicle by 
which the inner meaning is conveyed. 

The believers in literalism, or plenary inspira- 
tion, have made less objection to criticism when 
applied to the Old Testament than to the New, 
but the principle involved is the same. The light 
and truth which come to us in the biblical mes- 
sages must come as literature, an interpretation of 
human and racial life and experience, and not as 
a great collection of proof texts for the special 
defenses of dogmatic systems. The misty tra- 
ditions in Genesis as to the details of the creation 
may constitute an orderly story or correspondence, 
but they come enshrined in symbolism, poetry, 
and epic. They are the natural product of the 
imaginative awe and sacred mystery of primitive 
peoples, and not peculiar to the Hebrew as 
distinguished from other races and nations. 

It may at once be admitted that if the Eible be 
divinely dictated, verbatim, by God, it should not 
be subject to criticism. But, even were such the 
fact, in accord with the seventeenth century view 
of revelation, its great variety of meanings to dif- 
ferent classes of minds would not thereby be 
diminished. Language may be one thing, but its 
interpretation depends upon the subjective state of 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM 139 

the individual. Whether or not the Bible, as we 
have it, be absolutely inerrant, the same text is 
made the foundation for scores of varying creeds, 
and in it each finds its full endorsement. Intrinsi- 
cally, the Bible is an historic sketch of the divine 
intimacies of lofty souls, a chart of the religious and 
spiritual development of humanity. The Scriptures 
cannot be fenced off as something above and out- 
side of the normal product of the mind of man, for 
their free and intimate relations radiate in every 
direction. The divine comes through the human, 
and is not handed down in any miraculous way 
from the outside. The dramatic story of soul un- 
foldment as set forth by the writer of the book of 
Job, the poetic and symbolic songs of the Psalmist, 
the optimism of Isaiah, the pessimism of Jeremiah, 
the mysticism of Ezekiel, the rational psychology 
and spiritual philosophy of a Paul, and the ecstatic 
visions of Saint John, all show the white light of 
divinity as having received peculiar tint and shade 
in passing through the alembic of unlike minds and 
temperaments. For most able and illuminating in- 
terpretation, Harnack, the great biblical critic and 
student was denounced as a destructive opponent 
of the Bible, but a truer and deeper view would 
characterize him as its able defender, He has been 



140 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

credited with a disbelief of the birth stories in 
Matthew and Luke, and also of the physical resur- 
rection. He believes that the first gospel is a 
compilation by an unknown author, and that ad- 
ditions were made to it about A. D. 75. Numerous 
other differences from the traditional view are noted. 
It is not here proposed to enter in detail into the 
conclusions of the higher critics. The following 
few instances are merely illustrative. Some of 
the most able and conscientious biblical scholars 
believe that the book of Matthew was placed first 
in the New Testament because it deals directly 
with the genealogy and birth of Jesus, though 
probably not written until seventy-five years after 
that event. The tradition of more than two 
generations and the change of thought and feel- 
ing naturally color the narrative. The popular 
supposition that the book of Genesis, standing 
first in order in the Bible, as it does, and dealing 
with the creative period, was earliest written, 
is mistaken. There is good evidence that it was 
not composed before a late period in Hebrew 
history. The great prophets, Isaiah, Hosea, and 
Amos knew nothing of the story of the "Fall." 
Their inspiration and hope was for the future. 
Their paradise was not in the dim past but in a 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM 141 

grand consummation. In the order of historic 
development, the Pentateuch — the compendium 
of priestly legalism — only began after the Baby- 
lonian Exile. It is the aftermath of that cap- 
tivity rather than that of Egypt. The creative story 
and Garden of Eden are not even alluded to by 
any of the great seers before mentioned. Would 
this have been the case if it were the all-important 
factor in the destiny of man, which "the plan of 
salvation," as formulated in the traditional creeds, 
has made it ? 

The truth in the Bible has the same basis which 
underlies all other truth. Wherever expressed, in- 
herent excellence, rationality, beauty, and goodness 
are included in the nature of things. The creden- 
tials for truth are within itself. As it is brought 
into contact with man's higher reason and con- 
science it is self-attesting. The letter of the Bible 
is the vehicle for truth, and it is the reality which 
is infallible rather than that which conveys it. 
History shows that the assumed inerrancy of the 
text has always been misleading and has uniformly 
attempted to beat back the progress of science, in- 
vention, and knowledge. "Though the heavens 
fall," it has been regarded as indispensable that 
literalism be insisted upon. Religion supposedly 



142 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

depended upon it, and without it all was lost. 
How mistaken the conclusion ! 

As knowledge has increased and new realizations 
of circumstantial evidence and necessary adjust- 
ment have been made, the positions held on the 
basis of the old idea of inspiration have been found 
untenable. Citadel after citadel has fallen, until 
symptoms of a general panic multiply. Meanwhile 
the real truth remains calmly and securely poised 
above the superficial tempest which is driving men 
to shelter. The best thought outside of the church, 
which also should be relied upon to endorse and 
uphold religion and spiritual progress, has been 
needlessly affronted and set in opposition. Even 
the " natural man" has a genuine respect for, and 
openness toward rational goodness and the ideal 
life, but to insist upon alien dogmatic accretions as 
composing the pure gospel awakens his antagonism. 
Says Professor Adam Smith : " The critical study 
of the Scriptures completely dispels, on the evi- 
dence of the Bible itself, that view of inspiration 
so long held by the Church." 

The highest reason of man, when clarified by a 
sincere openness toward the divine Spirit is holy, 
and will ever serve the ends of a true faith. It 
may reverently be affirmed that it is God, at first 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM 143 

hand. "The secret place of the Most High" is 
not in a far-away heaven, but in man. There is 
his dwelling place, and there is set up the tribunal 
of truth and judgment. 

What may be called the larger faith becomes 
verifiable from all analogy, research, and relation. 
Not only human life in the concrete, but universal 
truth and even cosmic processes lend their endorse- 
ment. Religion and nature, both divine and mutu- 
ally complementary, have had a great gulf placed 
between them. The sympathetic comparison of 
faiths, first earnestly made at the Congress of 
Religions held at the Columbian Exposition in 
Chicago, was an object lesson to the world of the 
unity in variety, and of the real spirit of religion. 
The differences developed on that occasion were 
mostly superficial and incidental. Humanity is 
everywhere, and at all times, engaged in a search 
for truth, and in an attempt to grasp and realize 
the highest idea of God. Obscured or hidden as it 
may be, there is an universal divine thirst in the 
soul of man. Symbols, ordinances, sacraments, 
rituals, devotions, and services, and even idolatries 
are a signal attestation of natural spirituality and 
religiosity. Emerson aptly puts that great thought 
in poetic form : 



144 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

" Out from the heart of Nature rolled 
The burden of the Bible old : 
The Litanies of nations came, 
Like the volcano's tongue of flame, 
Up from the burning core below — 
The canticles of love and woe ; 

11 The word by seers and sibyls told 
In groves of oak, or fanes of gold, 
Still floats upon the morning wind, 
Still whispers to the willing mind. 
One accent of the Holy Ghost 
The heedless world hath never lost." 

The purpose of the authors of the Bible was not 
mainly to write history, but to set forth their own 
religious ideals in the light of events. The cry for 
righteousness, and the judgments, national and in- 
dividual for unrighteousness, were the motives un- 
derlying the whole Jewish literature. To find the 
spirit of the Bible, it must be studied like other 
books. It should also be read between the lines 
and its indefinable influence felt and absorbed. It 
must strike deeper than the mere intellectual un- 
derstanding. The ecclesiastical atmosphere which 
has been projected around the Bible is the main 
reason for the modern neglect of it. It hides it 
from near view and sympathetic perusal. The un- 
natural glamor turned upon it, repels rather than 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM 145 

attracts. To love the great profusion of lovely 
things in the Bible need not be a task but a de- 
light. It is a natural book. Gold does not need 
gilding, and inherent excellence is marred by the 
addition of artificial and abnormal features. The 
acceptance of the fact that the Bible is a literature, 
normal, and at the same time of surpassing merit 
and practical instruction, would dispel the irrational 
theory which has hedged it about. 

The New Testament is a continuous and higher 
development of the Hebrew ethical and religious 
ideals of the Old. The time covered is very much 
less, and the successive phases of thought and 
progress are much more rapid. There were no 
scribes present to report the words of Jesus, and 
they came down to us colored by various minds, 
memories, traditions, and personal peculiarities. 
Added to the Hebrew, other elements entered into 
the biblical literature, each leaving something of 
its distinctive quality in what was to appear in due 
time as a larger unit. The more distinctive Greek 
philosophy comes to the surface at intervals, and 
especially in marked degree in the fourth gospel. 
The New Testament literature is an historic and 
dramatic sketch of the roots and sources of Ju- 
daism's successor, distinctive Christianity. But 



146 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

like other events and facts, their importance is 
larger and lies back of these happenings, and re- 
sides in the principles and ideals of which they are 
the concrete expression. Christianity, from being 
racial, local, and historic, has burst its limitations, 
broadened its scope, and universalized its applica- 
tion. Jesus was not an author, nor an originator, 
but a demonstrator. He will ever be supreme as 
the ideal embodiment of the Christ spirit in man. 

There is no disposition among the higher biblical 
critics to regard unkindly those who have causti- 
cally commented upon their painstaking work. 
Their seeming iconoclasm is only an incidental 
result of devotion to truth. They would not will- 
ingly undermine any one's faith, but rather broaden 
and deepen it. To be permanent and substantial 
it must be based upon reality. The command to 
" believe " may be iterated and reiterated, but the 
human mind is so constituted that it must have 
evidence, and a large part of this evidence must be 
within. It is subjective truth that is winning its 
way in the world. To feel truth is deeper than to 
intellectually know it. 

The reaction from supposed biblical inerrancy, 
of which the higher criticism is the moving force, 
will accomplish a work beyond value in the arrest 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM 147 

of scepticism, infidelity, and materialism. The 
"unbeliever" is as much a devotee to "the let- 
ter " as the traditionalist. Accepting the same 
interpretation, its unreasonableness arouses his op- 
position. In literalism extremes meet. The shafts 
of a Voltaire, a Thomas Paine, or an Ingersoll have 
been almost entirely directed, not against truth, 
the Bible, nor religion, per se y but against accre- 
tions and assumptions which have been put in 
their place. Truth is inherently vital and attrac- 
tive. Said Milton : 

" Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to 
play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do in- 
gloriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt 
her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple; who 
ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open 
encounter ? " 

The present age greatly needs more familiarity 
with the Bible. It is not only by far the greatest 
literary production extant, but its strong fiber is 
largely inwrought in all later literature. It is a 
great reservoir from which thousands of cups have 
have been filled, and its influence in the shaping of 
the English language and all deeper culture is be- 
yond estimate. Its familiar sayings, aphorisms, 
and precepts thickly bespangle the tomes which 



148 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

most nobly represent human wisdom and learning. 
But above all, it is to be honored because it has so 
much of that inspirational quality which inspires. 

The teachings of Jesus, aside from their value 
as oracles of religious wisdom, are found to be in 
accord with the laws of man's nature on every 
plane. They are psychological, philosophical, and 
scientific in their exact adaptation to his constitu- 
tion. While many of them are so idealistic as 
seemingly to conflict with current ethical standards, 
and to be impractical in the present state of 
society, they furnish the working plan for the 
higher development of the future. The evolu- 
tionary ripeness for their complete exercise is not 
yet here, but their full non-resistant philosophy 
more and more will be the attractive pattern for 
speedy attainment. Their spirit and ideal have 
untold value. 

There need be no fear that the higher criticism 
will weaken or overthrow the truth of the Bible. 
Truth is invincible. It is rooted in God and can- 
not be moved. Scholarship will confirm and make 
more graphic its beauty and usefulness. Appre- 
ciation will increase with a better understanding. 
Search the Scriptures to know their value. The 
richest ore is not found upon the surface. If the 



THE HIGHER CRITICISM 149 

Bible will not stand trying, testing, and examina- 
tion, in the strongest kind of a light, it is unworthy 
of the confidence which we are invited to centre 
upon it. The real "Word of God" cannot be 
shaken, whatever may happen to the dogmas which 
have been artificially drawn from its text. 

The lower criticism is also absolutely neces- 
sary to prepare the way for intelligent and useful 
study. Only by painstaking scholarship can er- 
roneous conclusions be corrected. After this de- 
partment has done its work, the way is cleared for 
the higher criticism with its search for the inner 
spirit and significance. To ascertain the present 
value and motive of any passage of Scripture, it 
must be found what it meant to the author and to 
those of that special era. One might as well call 
the efficient process of crushing and roasting crude 
ore, in order to extract the pure gold, "destruc- 
tive," as to use any such term in connection with 
the conscientious and careful sifting of the text of 
the Written Word. 



IX 
CHRIST AND JESUS 

The Son of God naturally must be a living im- 
age of the Father. "And God created man in his 
own image, in the image of God created he him ; 
male and female created he them." Sonship, 
latent, potential, or dynamic therefore must include 
the whole human family. The image may be 
shaded, obscured, or even covered with rubbish, 
but its lineaments are deeply engraved in the 
background of man's nature. The Son, otherwise 
called the Christ, is the divine type in man, 
generic and universal. Jesus was an actualized 
and concrete demonstration of the spiritual hu- 
manity. 

Man's birthright includes a divine oneness and 
this is the normal ideal. Superficially observed, 
and in the lower consciousness, the divine and the 
human are two, while in the enlightened or spiri- 
tually developed soul they converge and finally be- 
come one. The dualism apparent in the utterances 
of Jesus was employed only to accomodate the ca- 
150 



CHRIST AND JESUS 151 

pacity of his hearers, for his affirmations of absolute 
unity were repeated and emphatic. "I and my 
Father are one." Undeveloped humanity is oblivi- 
ous to this great truth. The inner and profound 
reality is hidden from sensuous gaze. 

The accurate use of terms is very important. 
Many of the misunderstandings of the world might 
be avoided were there a medium of communication 
for ideas more precise than words. The names 
Christ and Jesus, furnish a striking example of un- 
certain definition. In common theological usage 
they are employed interchangeably, or as having 
the same significance. We will venture to suggest 
the evident definition of each term, with a just dis- 
crimination, and then note some of the reasons for 
the same. We may think of the name, Christ, as 
defining the eternal divine sonship in man, a vital 
and intrinsic oneness, fundamental and universal. 
It involves an inner quality, life, ideal, and temper. 
It is the divine image and likeness in the soul. In 
its essence it is impersonal, and it is latent in man 
until recognized, awakened, and brought into indi- 
vidualized manifestation. Above utter passivity 
there are many degrees of its personal develop- 
ment, from feeble foreshadowings up to its full 
rounded local and historic expression, as seen in 



152 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Jesus. He was the prophecy and ideal of what 
mankind is to be. Men are struggling on and up- 
ward toward the Pattern of the human filled with 
the divine in actuality and articulation. 

The general propositions which have been 
briefly outlined will be found, upon examination, to 
have abundant evidence and proof. All are aware 
that in the recorded sayings of Jesus he spake 
from two different standpoints. It should be easy 
to discriminate between them. One is from that 
of the universal, the divine, and the unhistoric, and 
the other from the local, temporary, and personal. 
Note a few of the former : " Your father Abraham 
rejoiced to see my day ; and he saw it, and was 
glad. The Jews therefore said unto him, Thou 
are not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Ab- 
raham ? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I 
say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." (John 
viii, 56-58) "There was the true light, even the 
light which lighteth every man, coming into the 
world." (John i, 9) "If therefore the Son (Christ 
mind) shall make you free, ye shall be free in- 
deed." (John viii, 36) " If ye abide in my word, 
then are ye truly my disciples ; and ye shall know 
the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 
(John viii, 31-32) " All things have been delivered 



CHRIST AND JESUS 153 

unto me of my Father : and no man knoweth who 
the Son is, save the Father ; and who the Father 
is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son 
willeth to reveal him." (Luke x, 22) "For thou 
lovedst me before the foundation of the world." 
(John xvii, 24) These few examples might be 
multiplied. It seems evident that they are ut- 
tered by the Christ mind or Spiritual Principle, 
through personality rather than by it. A few in- 
stances also follow from the local viewpoint, or 
from the son of man in his finite capacity. " And 
he did eat nothing in those days : and when they 
were completed, he hungered." (Luke iv, 2) "For 
the Spirit was not yet given ; because Jesus was 
not yet glorified." (John vii, 39) " My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" (Mark xv, 34) 
"And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he 
said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit : 
and having said this, he gave up the ghost." (Luke 
xxiii, 46) In general these two points of view are 
designated as the Son of God and the son of man. 
It logically follows that as any one is conscious of 
the inner divinity, or Christ, he is warranted in 
speaking ideally, or from the universality of the 
inner Light. In many instances, prophets and 
poets, both ancient and modern, have assumed and 



154 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

expressed such a potential oneness and authority. 
A familiar example of such breadth may be quoted 
from Emerson : 

"lam owner of the sphere, 
Of the seven stars and the solar year, 
Of Caesar's hand and Plato's brain, 
Of Lord Christ's heart and Shakespeare's strain." 

It is the God consciousness or Word — the Logos 
— in man, rather than the limited personality which 
thus finds expression. The latter is the mouth- 
piece. As man comes into conscious ownership of 
his higher birthright, all God's possessions belong 
to the Son, which is the deeper selfhood. Said St. 
Paul from the inner consciousness, for himself and 
others : " All things are yours." The Christ in 
man is the most profound and real ego but he is 
commonly unrecognized. "And he was in the 
hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow : and 
they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest 
thou not that we perish ? " (Mark iv, 38) He has 
not yet been awakened. So long as there is no 
" storm "it is forgotten that he is on board. 
When the outward or material self — the seeming 
man — finds himself likely to "perish" he is led 
to turn within and to find his real being. 

The world restlessly waits for, and toils upward 



CHRIST AND JESUS 155 

toward the larger truth of the Divine Mind in 
which we share. With its emergence from latency 
toward full incarnation, the crucifixion of the 
material claimant takes place. Then the conscious 
resurrection and final dominance of the higher in 
man are realized. As this is an eternal and uni- 
versal law, the heritage of all men as well as one 
seemingly favored one, it follows that as soon as 
the truth is realized, humanity will rise rapidly to 
the altitude of Spiritual Principle. Every man has 
his part in the potency of the higher law, and he 
may exercise it in a way which is orderly and make 
it available. "All things are yours " is not merely 
a poetic sentiment but a statement of truth which 
is practical, psychological, spiritual, and even scien- 
tific in an exact sense. The ownership of moral 
and spiritual verities, including also subordinate 
blessings, requires only developed capacity. All 
ideals which one will firmly hold are his, and their 
actualization is but a matter of time. But owner- 
ship is not exclusive, for the same may be possessed 
by all. Even God, who is our God, actually be- 
longs to all to the degree that a conscious oneness 
has been developed. 

Glancing at past history, we may observe the 
occasional outcropping of man's divinity during the 



156 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

gradual course of human evolution. In the early 
Greek theology the inner divinity was a fundamen- 
tal idea but not long after a more materialistic faith 
gained the ascendency. The great Council of 
Nicaea, A.D. 325, was called by Constantine to 
settle the many complicated and disputed points 
pertaining to the nature of Christ and his office. 
A great controversy was raging, led on differing 
sides by Athanasius and Arius. The main ques- 
tions at issue, were : Has man real and normal 
kinship and oneness with God, or are they separate 
and unlike in nature and being ? Was Jesus a for- 
mal ambassador — intermediate in nature between 
God and man — sent from a far-away Deity, or did 
he represent essential God in man ? The latter 
statement was maintained. But the triumph and 
high-water mark of that Spiritual Principle was 
short lived and gradually the Incarnation came to 
be regarded as a single and exceptional act, a mat- 
ter of formal legalism. This cold doctrine, as 
might be predicted, soon became devoid of vitality 
and destitute of spiritual fruitage. The evolutionary 
ripeness for the larger and inner ideal had not arrived. 
The conditions seemed to demand something out- 
wardly stronger and more dogmatic, and that great 
leader and exponent, St. Augustine, among the 



CHRIST AND JESUS 157 

early Church fathers became its leading authority. 
The ideal of God which soon prevailed, was largely 
inspired by the concept of an infinite Caesar, a 
Monarch who rules the world from afar and issues 
formal edicts. The age seemed to demand that 
man should be governed by some force more defi- 
nite and tangible than the spiritual and unseen. 
Sensuous man must feel external power and bow 
before outward force because love and the inner 
Christ were yet too feebly developed to gain a hear- 
ing. The faith and zeal of the Primitive Church 
had waned and intellectual dogma and speculative 
theology were in evidence. With Church and 
State united and with alien races to be formally, 
if not forcibly "Christianized," religion must 
be a power outside of man to be respected, and 
naturally the idea of the deity became kingly and 
arbitrary. 

In modern Protestant theology there has con- 
tinued a persistence of the dogma that the divin- 
ity in Jesus was something unlike the divinity in 
mankind. It still is authoritively taught that he 
was not a normal man but a unique interposer or 
mediator between God and man. This virtually 
means an abnormal being. He was one who 
came to make a treaty of peace between discon- 



158 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

nected and discordant parties but was practically 
unlike either one. But Jesus says : " In that day 
ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in 
me, and I in you." (John xiv, 20) The dogma 
of the deity of Jesus — " very God " — instead of 
his moral and spiritual divinity has occupied and 
still holds a basic position in Protestant systems. 
This either causes, or is the cause, of the claims 
of his unique preexistence, miraculous birth, and 
physical resurrection. These effectually put him 
out of touch with mankind, and so to them he 
could not be a human ideal, " the first born among 
many brethren," or a "first fruit." Does it seem 
possible that one so utterly unlike man could be, 
" in all points tempted like as we are ? " A di- 
vinity in which all may share is all that he ever 
claimed for himself. A normal Christology which 
would find the Son or divine image at the soul 
centre of man, is quite unlike the anomalous grade 
of being usually assumed for Jesus. Harnack, 
one of the greatest of modern theologians, denies 
that the miraculous birth and physical resurrec- 
tion are necessary to or essentially within the 
limits of a well-defined Christian faith. It is in- 
deed fortunate that the glorious and living gospel 
rests upon a broader and stronger foundation than 



CHRIST AND JESUS 159 

traditional strange occurrences. Theoretical judg- 
ments may be very unlike value judgments. 

Is the Christian experience of to-day some 
supernatural revelation from the historic embodi- 
ment, or is it a conscious sonship, the life of God 
in the soul of man ? Is intrinsic Christianity — 
love, spirituality, and a divine trust — universal in 
its adaptability or confined to a single channel ? 
Is not a grand truth larger than any single dem- 
onstration of the same, however perfect and at- 
tractive ? Is our experimental knowledge of Christ 
limited to the earthly career of the son of Man? 
The present value of the greatest historic fact 
must lie in the transcendent truth or principle 
which is back of it and of which it is the product. 
If God is Spirit, the Son or likeness must also be 
spirit rather than flesh. Whatever is of time and 
place — which are sensuous conditions or limita- 
tions — cannot in its essence be eternal but rather 
a manifestation of the eternal. No single life or 
experience can be absolutely unique unless the 
moral order be fragmentary and capricious. Cor- 
respondence and relation are everywhere. If the 
most supreme fact, as such, be not the expression 
of a general law, it can hardly convey practical 
value or vital adaptability. 



160 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

The use of the two names under consideration 
as having exactly the same outlines and limita- 
tions, is clearly misleading and belongs to an im- 
mature state of Christian consciousness. The two 
have the same relation which truth bears to its 
articulation. The essential Christ, the divine hu- 
man ideal is beyond time and was existent before 
the advent of the great Exemplar. Christ, the 
living truth, is the Savior. 

It is true that the Christ ideal which was su- 
preme in the seen Embodiment, has only a faint 
and partial expression in other souls. But the 
everlasting truth is, God in man. The divine as- 
piration is kindled at the soul centre. It may 
have but a gestative, obscured, or hidden life, but 
it never will die. There is its home. Jesus 
proved the Christ for us and indexed his full-orbed 
power. But as a practical ideal, this power ever 
was. The Old Testament worthies were alive to 
it and gave it partial, concrete, and visible incarna- 
tion. Some of their embodiments were so faithful 
as to deserve the name of savior in their day and 
generation. Who would affirm that the life of Jesus 
manifested the full breadth of the " Light of the 
World"? Its radiance must illumine every soul, 
and so its fullness must include humanity at large. 



CHRIST AND JESUS l6l 

The interpretations of the divine Embodiment 
vary with different ages and are not quite the 
same with any two individuals. Any one's divine 
concept, though having Jesus for a perfect objec- 
tive Pattern, must be subjective. Hence Christ 
to every one is always within, while the historic 
material Personality is without. With the higher 
evolution of man the indwelling Son will ever 
have an increasing significance. 

The outward life and acts of the great Ex- 
emplar have been more or less clouded by the 
mists of tradition and superstition, but nothing 
can distort the Spiritual Principle. It is an inner 
creation, and the highest in every man which his 
growing capacity will allow. The Messianic ex- 
pectation of the ancient Jews was centered upon 
a powerful king and national deliverer, and appar- 
ently contained but little of the spiritual element. 
The biography of the son of Man is but fragmen- 
tary and incomplete, and this lack of actual detail 
leaves all the more room for idealization. The 
scanty outlines which history and tradition have 
handed down are filled in and receive their sub- 
jective shading — often unconsciously — by each 
individual. As standards of all that is highest in 
human life enlarge and move forward, the general 



1 62 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

concept of Christ is ever expanding in correspon- 
dence. The synoptic gospels and all other records 
of the visible Personality, as if by a subtle spiri- 
tual intuition of what was fitting, cast a veil of 
silence and mystery over the supreme incarnation, 
and thus the divine light in each soul sheds its 
own brightest beams upon it. Then, as now, the 
materialistic inclination is strong to worship the 
seen form rather than the larger spiritual Pres- 
ence, so that Jesus plainly said to his disciples, 
"It is expedient for you that I go away." The 
homage was bestowed upon the embodiment in- 
stead of that which was embodied. 

The most inspiring consciousness which is pos- 
sible to the human soul is God within, for this is 
" the Son." Its absence means separateness, 
darkness. 

" Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be 
born, 
If he's not born in thee thy soul is all forlorn. 

" Could but thy soul, O man, become a silent night, 
God would be born in thee, and set all things 
aright." 

God's immanence in man as exemplified in the 
Personality is rightly called the Christ. This does 
not predicate an outward individuality, but de- 



CHRIST AND JESUS 163 

fines that divinity within, which is dynamic in 
quality. Every man is inmostly divine, but no 
one is deific. God embodied a sample of himself 
in the man of Nazareth, and such an indwelling is 
a law which runs through all human life. The 
"plan of salvation" is not a formal scheme to 
repair the unexpected failure of some original pur- 
pose, but redemption, as demonstrated in the 
specific Example, is an evolutionary spiritual ac- 
complishment. But it is never quite finished in 
man. Even at the loftiest point supposable, there 
is no stop, no stagnation. As a procedure, it will 
never become, but is eternally becoming. The 
Exemplar was not a spiritual process, but the first- 
fruit of one. In him was the articulation of an 
eternal, orderly law. The divine indwelling never 
had a beginning and will have no end. Incarnation 
is in the nature of things. Moral indirection is not 
the result of "a fall," but rather the frictional and 
gradual elimination of animalism. It includes the 
growing pains of spiritual enlargement. 

The humanity of God is too large to be con- 
tained within or confined to a single life, however 
exalted. The sonship which was incarnated was 
full but not exclusive. The essence of moral and 
spiritual beauty is diffusive, and ever increasingly 



164 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

so. The stream of divinity man-ward is broad 
enough to fill every human craving and capacity 
so far as they are opened. If the Model of the 
gospels were more than human, men are normally 
barred from the powers and privileges which he 
manifested. The passing of the dogma of a lim- 
ited atonement must logically be followed by 
its twin misapprehension of a limited son ship. 
Divinity and humanity are but two sides of a 
unit. 

" More near than aught thou call'st thy own , 
Draw if thou canst the mystic line, 
Severing rightly His from thine, 
Which is human, which divine ? " 

It is usually assumed that certain familiar say- 
ings and sympathetic acts of the Master attest his 
humanity, while his miracles form the evidence of 
his divinity. But the real proof of his spiritual 
sonship is not contained in a theoretical miraculous 
birth, resurrection, and ascension, and in " works " 
which to dull materialistic vision seemed wonderful, 
but in his unbounded love, pure spirituality, and di- 
vine self recognition. He claimed the birthright 
so universally unrecognized by other men. The 
foundation of the living gospel is too broad to stand 



CHRIST AND JESUS 165 

upon such a narrow and uncertain basis as a few- 
unusual occurrences. 

Christianity is a free universal force playing 
through man's nature, independent of time, cir- 
cumstances, or ecclesiastical limitation. It found 
beautiful and full expression in the Pattern of the 
gospels and is ever seeking new forms of outward 
blossoming and fruitage. It is no finished depos- 
itory of a body of truth, once for all handed down, 
but a living and abounding assertion of the divine 
image. If the Absolute could descend and fully 
contain itself in one concrete form, the gospel 
narrative would be finished. Christianity, as a 
term, has come to signify many things to many 
men. Its simple proportions have been buried 
beneath a great mass of accretions with which it 
has no vital relation. Why should it be burdened 
with some peculiar form of baptism, sacrament, 
ordinance, theory of nativity, or unique church 
polity ? The wine of modern thought and scholar- 
ship regarding the divine indwelling cannot be put 
in "old bottles." 

The Master receives his true glorification through 
the race. Were he superhuman in his being and 
essence his example would be beyond our aspira- 
tion. Theologically, if the crucial point of the gos- 



1 66 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

pel be the cross, suffering, and death, instead of the 
life, it is plain that he could not have proclaimed 
it during his earthly embodiment. Only an invali- 
dated Christianity would rest upon such a basis. 
The ecclesiastical and Nicene interpretation of 
the son of Man, as a definable part of a Trinity, 
puts him outside the human family, and from its 
very nature must ever remain an abstraction in the 
minds of men. But the Christ or Son will ever 
be Immanuel. The miracles recorded in the Bible, 
wherever they have not been colored or enlarged 
by tradition, show that man, as a normal repository 
of spiritual forces, is a far greater and diviner being 
than we have thought possible. With the shadow 
of a theoretical native depravity before our eyes, 
the vision of ideal humanity has been distorted. 
Unusual works which cause wonder need not be 
regarded as beyond the realm of orderly law, but 
possible to human accomplishment through the 
divinity which may work in man in ways rarely 
appreciated. It is God within, and not outside, 
who doeth the works. The older view of miracles, 
which interpreted them as examples of suspended 
or violated law does not honor God or his estab- 
lished methods. He is neither disorderly nor 
capricious. 



CHRIST AND JESUS 167 

The Christ mind did not first begin in Bethle- 
hem, though there was its first complete manifes- 
tation. The Master gave utterance to truth that 
was eternally true, but he laid no claim to origi- 
nality. Says Professor Benjamin Jowett, former 
master of Balliol College, and eminent interpreter 
of the Bible : 

" An ideal necessarily mingles with all conceptions 
of Christ: why should we object to a Christ who is 
necessarily ideal ? Do persons really suppose that they 
know Christ as they know a living friend ? Is not 
Christ in the Sacrament, Christ at the right hand of 
God, Christ in you the hope of Glory, an ideal ? Have 
not the disciples of Christ, from the age of St. Paul on- 
wards, been always idealizing his memory ? 

" Each age may add something to the perfection and 
balance of the whole. Did not St. Paul idealize Christ ? 
Do we suppose that all which he says of him is simply 
matter of fact, or known to St. Paul as such ? It might 
have been that the character would have been less uni- 
versal if we had been able to trace more defined fea- 
tures. What would have happened to the world if 
Christ had not come ? What would happen if he 
were to come again ? What would have happened if 
we had perfectly known the words and teaching of 
Christ ? How far can we individualize Christ, or is he 
only the perfect image of humanity ? " 

The evident lack of vital power in the intellec- 
tual concept of the Christ of the confessions and 



168 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

creeds is giving rise to a modern cry: "Back to 
Jesus ! " Is this conventional and ecclesiastical 
son of God like the real inner quality which was so 
perfectly demonstrated ? It were well if an ideal 
of Christly embodiment might take the place of 
the theological speculations concerning him and 
his unique powers. Each of the world's great 
religions has had its great exponent who has been 
divinely idealized by his followers. It does not 
dishonor the Demonstrator of Christianity to say 
that we could hardly expect him to be an excep- 
tion to the rule. When he speaks from the 
depths of Sonship, he says : "I am the Way and 
the Truth and the Life." (John xiv, 6) Joseph 
may have been his natural father, but no less the 
eternal Spirit was in him. What was embodied 
was universal and spiritual, while the embodiment 
was material and historic. If Jesus was not the 
son of Joseph, and descended from Abraham in 
the genealogical line given in Matthew, what is its 
historic significance ? 

The current concepts of the personality of the 
son of Man, which have prevailed through the 
ages, have varied with the temper of environment 
and the theological media through which it has 
been observed. Among the Hebrews his lack of 



CHRIST AND JESUS 169 

material power and leadership was an early disap- 
pointment. But he also was the centre of con- 
verging expectation and later of apostolic devotion. 
Upon his name has been built a vast structure of 
theological speculation, ecclesiastical authority, and 
much asceticism as well as idealism. He remains 
the grand focal point of moral, religious, and spiri- 
tual life. With but a limited knowledge of the 
Demonstrator, it remains that that which was 
demonstrated is the ever expanding and inspira- 
tional Pattern of mankind. Upon him we are 
ever lavishing our "gold, frankincense, and myrrh." 
A diviner unfoldment of sonship will be the un- 
ceasing aspiration of generations yet unborn. 

" Not further off, but further on, 
Such is the nature of thy guest ; 
They heaven find who heaven win, 
The one true Christ is in thy breast." 

It is the nature and purpose of the inmost to 
seek expression. The " Word " must become 
flesh, for that is its normal tendency. It is the 
unending purpose of the world to conceive the 
Christ. The higher or historic criticism is useful 
in removing obstructions so that the divinity in 
man may grow brighter. If intellectual specula- 



I/O LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

tion interposes itself between the Ideal and its 
concrete manifestation it must be cast aside. 

Mistaking the material Personality for the Son, 
men are looking backward and outward for him 
instead of within. Objective pictures, ideals, and 
descriptions of that which was visible are ever 
variant, and will be uncertain guides until every 
one finally recognizes his image as the highest 
within himself. Each at length must come to his 
own. Theological dogma clothes the central 
figure with unreal and misleading aspects. These 
appearances promote agnosticism and scepticism. 
The image presented from the outside being un- 
true does not attract, while the highest subjective in 
every man draws him and calls out his aspiration. 

Some one has well said that the " Light of the 
World " comes modified by stained-glass windows, 
and that the prevailing pigments were Roman law 
and Hebrew sacrifice. The office of Christ is 
biological, and not that of legal formalism. The 
real Son sits serene at the centre of the being of 
man, while dogmatic opinions about him tell of 
expiation and substitution. 

The general search for Christ — in the highest 
degree laudable — is too closely confined to the 
details of the robe of flesh. Unbounded effort has 



CHRIST AND JESUS 171 

been put forth to reproduce every circumstance 
and accessory. The seeker for truth becomes 
hopelessly involved in uncertain and complex cita- 
tion and is lost in by-paths. The clinging tendrils 
of anxious souls which need support are pushed 
back and bewildered. It is not an embalmed body 
or a tragic death which is needed in this unbeliev- 
ing age but life more abundant. 

It is true that the seen Exemplar, as a unit of 
the human race, had a definite personal history, 
and so far as it can be truly set forth it is of great 
interest. To be a way-shower he must have had 
the same powers, emotions, and faculties as are 
common to mankind. But in him the New Man 
was fully awakened. On the Godward side he was 
open for a full and free influx of the Spirit. His 
was no life of asceticism, but of contact with the 
world, including all its exposure and reactions. 
But beyond its incidental surroundings it was so far 
involved in a larger environment, that it must of 
necessity be largely misunderstood even by his 
most intimate disciples. 

After what we call death by crucifixion, and 
following the resurrection, the recorded appear- 
ances of Jesus are few, fleeting, and apparently 
not subject to the laws of the plane upon which he 



172 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

had previously lived, and which pertain to the 
physical career. Paul says : " It is sown a natural 
(material) body and raised a spiritual body." Pas- 
sing through closed doors, partial and uncertain 
recognition, and appearance in unexpected places, 
indicate a more refined and immaterial organization 
than that which would have resulted from a preser- 
vation of the form of clay. No speculative consid- 
eration of these appearances need here be entered 
upon or comparison made with similar manifesta- 
tions numerously claimed now and through the past 
ages. But we may well ask, why should Jesus, 
even if of supreme spiritual attainment, have an 
experience outside of universal and beneficent laws, 
and thus be put beyond the pale of mankind? 
Whatever the character of the post-resurrection 
appearances, we may infer that they were normal 
and not beyond the possibility which is the privi- 
lege of spiritually developed humanity. The higher 
life includes capabilities for its own satisfactory 
demonstration. There is an unappreciated potency 
and true mysticism in spiritual things which is 
beautiful and orderly, and it may be kept clear of 
superstition and fanaticism. The higher conscious- 
ness is divinely natural. 

God is love, and love, therefore, must be the sub- 



CHRIST AND JESUS 173 

stance of sonship. Love was the vital flame of the 
Primitive Church. It is the length, breadth, and 
height of ideal Christianity, for it includes all the 
subordinate virtues. It is a developed relation and 
temper toward all environment, far and near. 
" For love is of God, and every one that loveth is 
begotten of God. He that loveth not knoweth 
not God. And the witness is this, that God 
gave unto us the eternal life, and this life is in 
his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life ; he 
that hath not the Son hath not the life. These 
things have I written unto you that ye might know 
that ye have the eternal life." 

If the New Man be a vital outgrowth in human 
nature, he is not a matter of time and place. 
What of Moses and Daniel and Isaiah ? The God 
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is not the God of 
the dead but of the living. Life can become 
neither confined nor inert, else it is no longer life. 

Sonship is an inspiring and beautiful mystery. 
Can the infinite Father occupy the human form ? 
A transcendent truth, ancient, yet ever new. 
Thou art wrapped in our fleshly mantle and we feel 
thee as our very self. Jesus was the " Elder 
Brother " of the spiritual family of man. The di- 
vine lineaments within are to shine through our 



174 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

own hard features and transform them. We will 

not be abashed at the glory of sonship. The " star 

of Bethlehem" is ever rising in human hearts and 

its light dispels the darkness from receptive souls. 

H The dayspring from on high shall visit us, 
To shine upon them that sit in darkness and the 

shadow of death ; 
To guide our feet into the way of peace." 



X 

SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 

The moral and spiritual progress of mankind 
comes through sacrifice. Atonement is a uni- 
versal law, and the one great historic fact to which 
the term generally has been limited, is but a 
single, though supreme concrete expression of the 
common principle. The moral order, as it applies 
to humanity, provides that the best and purest 
lives must suffer or be sacrificed for the good of 
the race. The Cross is not limited to Calvary. 
Rather it overshadows the world. Human atten- 
tion is prone to be fixed upon some unusual trans- 
action, because the principle of which it is only a 
manifestation is so broad and universal, that the 
outward eye looks through and beyond it. This 
great law, so deeply rooted in the constitution of 
man, has had multiform articulation in all known 
systems of religion. Says Trumbull in his " Blood 
Covenant " : 

"In an inscription from the Egyptian monuments, 
the original of which dates back to the early days of 

175 



176 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Moses, there is reference to the then ancient legend of 
the rebellion of mankind against the gods ; of an edict 
of destruction against the human race ; and of a divine 
interposition for the rescue of the doomed people. In 
that legend a prominent place is given to human blood, 
which was mingled with the juice of mandrakes, and 
offered as a drink to the gods, and afterward poured 
out to overflow and revivify the earth. And the ancient 
text affirms that it was in conjunction with these events 
that sacrifices began in the world." 

Since the time when man crossed the mystic 
line between animalhood and manhood — sym- 
bolized by "the Fall" in Eden, and the acquire- 
ment of a " knowledge of good and evil " — he has 
had some innate sense of right and wrong. Then 
began the first perception of a moral law. Re- 
sponsibility to something or somebody higher, and 
a feeling of guilt as a consequence of the lack of 
conformity to some standard became universal. 
Fear of penalty was present as the result of an 
intuitive perception. When men chose the lower 
instead of the higher, it required no dogma to 
teach them that penalty was due. But their de- 
velopment was not sufficiently advanced to show 
them that it was both inherent and corrective, for 
it seemed to be imposed by some Power outside. 
Apparently, it was vindictive in spirit, and came 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 177 

from beings or gods, higher and more powerful 
than themselves. As these forces or deities were 
mysterious and unseen, superstitious dread was 
awakened, and their placation became of the ut- 
most importance. The abandonment of sin, for 
the prevention of penalty was yet too high and 
distant an ideal to seem practical, so there was 
naturally a strong desire to propitiate or buy off 
the powers which threatened. Sacrifice in innu- 
merable forms thus became universal. But low 
and mistaken as it was, it was a faint foreshadow- 
ing of a true sacrificial law which was not made 
fully intelligible before the time of Jesus. Pre- 
vious to his advent, evolutionary unripeness had 
not permitted any general interpretation of the 
higher and unselfish principle of renunciation. 

Various messiahs, holy men, and prophets, like 
Gautama Buddha and some of the Old Testament 
seers discerned the truer ideal of self-sacrifice, but 
Jesus both lived and taught it in far more definite 
terms. The prevailing desire was to get rid of 
penalty, but not by an abandonment of the offense. 
To give something was the first impulse. The 
offering must have worth, and cost the giver dearly. 
Added to its pecuniary value, there was real or 
implied mental or physical suffering, or both, in 



178 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

order to render it more acceptable. Among poly- 
theistic races, where there were both good and bad 
deities, the good were praised and flattered, while 
the sacrificial offerings were made to the powers 
of evil. In early monotheism the same principle 
existed but the good and evil, or the favor and dis- 
favor, were centered in one deity instead of being 
divided among several. 

If the shadow of a broken law rested upon men, 
the lawmaker must be appeased. Oblations and 
immolations were thus universal, no less among 
the Hebrews, than with the surrounding ethnic or 
pagan nations. The asceticism, extreme rigor, and 
flagellation of the mediaeval ages were outcroppings 
of the same deep desire of men to set themselves 
right, and to gain some credit which should offset 
sin. Any universal sentiment which has a deep 
root in human nature will find expression, in some 
form, in every religious system. Men felt that 
the smoke of burnt offerings had a sweet savor in 
the nostrils of the Deity, and that the shedding of 
blood was more efficacious than precious gifts in 
buying off penalty. But during various periods 
the rites lost their vitality and became mere 
formalities. 

The strong impulse of Abraham to take the life 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 179 

of his son Isaac, to please God, was superseded by 
a higher thought before the deed was consummated. 
Such an intention was just as contrary to the will 
of the beneficent God of love — the eternal Father 
— as that of the prophets of Baal, who cried aloud 
to their deity, and "cut themselves after their 
manner with knives and lances" to gain favor, as 
related in the book of First Kings. Both wished 
to please the overruling Power, and the mistaken 
idea of the character of God, or the gods, does not 
seem to have been very different. 

In all ages, and under all religions, the low and 
humanized concept of God has been the basis of 
sacrificial systems. He was but a magnified man, or 
king, vain, passionate, cruel, and even corruptible. 
The story of man, as he emerges from brutehood 
and passes by slow degrees through superstition 
toward the light, might almost be summed up in 
the one word sacrifice. As a rite it was like an 
acrid and unripe fruit, but the idea was of potential 
purification and goodness. Truly the spiritual 
growth of the race comes through educational fric- 
tion and tribulation. The worship, service, and 
almost the totality of the ancient religious systems, 
that of the Hebrew not excepted, consisted of a 
perpetual effort to court favor with a ruling Power 



180 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

which was only their own unlovely concept. Much 
of this feeling still remains, and even the Christian 
religion is not free from its shadow to this day. 

Every people, and perhaps it is not too much to 
say, every soul, on the way toward an approximate 
knowledge of the true God, passes through a stage 
when God, as seen by him, must be propitiated. 
The reflection of human passions and conditions 
upon the supreme Power clothes it with an aspect 
where presents, suffering, and even an abject atti- 
tude are thought to be available for favor. 

Perhaps the most forbidding feature of the great 
world-wide superstition is the idea that God is 
pleased and conciliated by the literal shedding of 
blood — innocent blood. Oh, the cruel butchery 
which supplied the ancient altars with their victims ! 
Read a description of the place of sacrifice in the 
ancient temple ! The cooing turtle dove, the gen- 
tle firstling of the flock, the goat and ram and 
bullock all poured out their life blood to fill the 
demand of this heathenish instinct. But the tak- 
ing of life was not limited to animals. Even among 
the Hebrews, human sacrifices were not infrequent. 
The daughter of Jephthah, one of the leaders of 
Israel, a man who judged the Chosen People for 
six years, was a victim. That the horrid custom 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT l8l 

was probably borrowed from the Ammonites only 
shows its general prevalence. Moloch is the title 
of the divinity which the men of Judah, in the later 
ages of the kingdom, were wont to appease by the 
sacrifice of their own children. Jeremiah and 
Ezekiel make frequent and bitter reference to the 
" high places " for the sacrifice of children by their 
parents. Such a place was built beneath the very 
walls of the temple at Jerusalem on the slope of 
the gloomy valley of Hinnon, or Tophet. Though 
these offerings were devoted to Moloch, the cruel 
ritual was so closely associated with Jehovah wor- 
ship that Jeremiah repeatedly found it necessary 
to protest that it was not of Jehovah's institution. 
Even among the intellectual Athenians, there was 
an annual human sacrifice. A man and a woman 
were hurled from the brink of the Acropolis, as sin 
bearers. The Romans threw their victims from 
the Tarpeian Rock. But illustrations need not be 
multiplied of a barbarous rite which for ages was 
like a pall over the most righteous nations of the 
ancient time. 

The universality of a superstitious fear of an 
unseen and uninterpreted Absolute, with an intui- 
tive sense of inward demerit, naturally found its 
climax in an unworthy view of the Atonement 



182 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

made by Jesus. That the God of all love, whose 
children we are, and in whose likeness we are 
made, could have satisfaction in the shedding of 
innocent blood, would be revolting to us, had it not 
been enshrined and poetized in sacred rhetoric, 
hymn, dogma, and religious association. During 
the earthly ministry of Jesus, and for a long time 
before and after, the world was full of slaves and 
captives. Generally they were prisoners who had 
been taken in war, or persons condemned for crime 
or debt. Often they were set at liberty through 
the payment of a sum of money which was called 
a ransom, and the act was one of redemption. As 
men are, and were the slaves of sin, and as they 
could become free through being ransomed by the 
higher, or Christ life, the common fact became a 
natural figure or correspondence. But it was a 
redemption from evil, and not from the anger of 
God. Repentance and the abandonment of wrong- 
doing frees men from bondage to their lower selves, 
but there is no bondage which is of God. So long 
as evil was commonly personified, it was a captivity 
to the Devil. 

Only through perversion, or a misleading literal- 
ism, does the Bible seem to teach that Jesus was 
punished for the guilt of man, or in man's place. 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 183 

If a legal debt due from man to God were paid 
by the death of Jesus, there would be no place for 
the divine forgiveness or love. The cold, formal, 
and technical view of the Atonement — now hap- 
pily passing — has long burdened the Church and 
the world. It is foreign to the beneficent prin- 
ciple in its unperverted integrity. The exact 
term was at-one-ment, and it meant full reconcil- 
iation. The change implied was on the human 
and not the divine side. While the detached 
"letter'' seems to express a divine satisfaction 
through a purchase, by the shedding of physical 
blood, Jesus taught no such dishonoring doctrine ; 
neither was it literally held by the Primitive 
Church nor for some time later. It is evident 
that if redemption and salvation are conditioned 
upon his death, he could not have brought them 
to light during his life and ministry, nor could 
they have been made known at any time previous. 
His mission was not to appease the Father, but to 
express and demonstrate him in the flesh. This 
was necessary because the consciousness of un- 
developed man is material. Spiritual lessons 
must be brought down to his own level, and 
illustrated. 

It is interesting to note how a perverted view 



184 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

of the Atonement grew up. As the Church un- 
der Constantine became identified with the State, 
and lost its pristine spiritual power and beauty, 
the quality of hard Roman legalism was dominant. 
God became a distant and unfamiliar "dread 
Sovereign." The slavish fear with which the 
surrounding nations regarded their deities was 
measurably absorbed and it displaced the earlier 
apostolic and more distinctively Greek ideal of 
the indwelling God. From a formal, austere, and 
unlovable Deity men demand some shield. They 
cry out for something to interpose between their 
own repulsive concept of God and themselves. 
Nothing could be more natural than such a de- 
mand. They were told that they must love God, 
but it was morally impossible. Rather they would 
shrink from him and demand that his face be 
hidden. Hence the dogma of an interposition. 
"God is love." Love warms and spontaneously 
attracts and brings at-one-ment. Did Jesus or 
anything else need to interpose between Love and 
love? It is not the true God, but a God made 
by their own imagination that men want to be 
delivered from. Rightly interpreted, blood sym- 
bolizes the inmost quality, not the death but the 
life. The blood of a race, a dynasty, or a family 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 185 

signifies the strain, the hereditary character. 
Nothing should hide God. 

Except through a misleading literalism, the 
Bible does not teach that Jesus was punished as 
a substitute for man, nor that the wrath of God 
was visited upon him in our place. But, as before 
intimated, when he came sacrifice covered the 
whole religious horizon of the Hebrew nation. 
As a rite it was perpetual, and the blood of 
slaughtered animals ran in streams from the 
great altar, and the smoke of burnt offerings was 
thick in the temple. Men did not know how 
to worship without the altar and its victim. 
When Christianity superseded Judaism, what more 
natural than that the idea of sacrifice should 
continue in some form. The best of everything 
was to be offered. Though a purer and better 
thought existed among a few in Israel, in gen- 
eral the idea of victims in the old religion was 
transferred to a great victim for the new. 
He was the typical lamb and he the perpetual 
passover. 

But Jesus was not slain by God, nor by friends, 
but by enemies out of hatred. His murderers had 
no idea of worship through their criminal act. All 
the true sacrificial quality was spiritual and typical 



186 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

and resulted from a devotion to the truth, and was 
a lesson in human service. 

When a potentate of the East was feared by his 
subjects, or even by his enemies, or when he was 
offended, gifts were presented to pacify him. To 
the common people of Israel, Jehovah was much 
like a greater Monarch, and in their view of his 
character efforts toward appeasement were per- 
fectly logical. The real work of the " Son of 
Man" was to bring the soul into contact with 
God and such is the present Christian ideal. All 
formal sacrifices, as a rite, are survivals from 
paganism. 

The death of Jesus was not unique in kind. He 
was a martyr of unexampled divinity and dignity, 
but only one among untold thousands who have 
given their lives for the truth. The true Atone- 
ment was the supreme expression of love for 
humanity. In the attempt to take the terms, "re- 
demption " and " ransom " in a literal and physical 
sense, there was a theory extant for several cen- 
turies in the Christian Catholic Church, that the 
ransom which was paid by the Crucifixion was 
given to the Devil because he was the enemy who 
holds sinners captive. The claims of Satan had to 
be met and a fair equivalent paid for freedom. 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 187 

This exactly corresponded to the prevailing custom 
of ransom which was given to Oriental despots for 
the liberation of slaves. Just debts must be dis- 
charged, for sinners had virtually sold themselves 
to the arch-enemy of mankind. Such a dogma, 
which for so long a time was orthodox, demon- 
strates the terrible bondage which comes from a 
concept of the letter as the reality. 

God is eternally reconciled to man, and this 
gospel, or good news, was the fundamental message 
of Jesus. Only a few highly developed souls be- 
lieved it before that time, and the conviction is 
yet by no means universal. As men had to buy 
the favor of the despotic and selfish earthly mon- 
arch, so they thought it necessary to win the favor 
of the heavenly Father. Dr. James Freeman 
Clarke called this " the warlike view of the Atone- 
ment." This was succeeded by one based upon 
the rigid rules of Roman jurisprudence, and this 
has been termed the legal theory of the Atone- 
ment. Hugo Grotius proclaimed still another 
hypothesis, which has been termed the govern- 
mental theory of the Atonement. In effect, it 
was that God punished human sin through the 
death of Jesus as a necessary warning against 
future sin. The Crucifixion was therefore re- 



188 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

quired on account of its deterrent influence as a 
moral regulation. 

It has even been maintained that the total 
guilt of the race was so concentrated and intensi- 
fied that "Jesus bore it all." What fear and woe 
have been brought into human life by hard and re- 
pulsive dogmas like these! The true "expiation" 
for sin consists in putting it away. There may be 
voluntary vicarious suffering, but not involuntary 
vicarious punishment where it is not due. The 
moral order is not arbitrary but reasonable and 
just. Transgression provides for its own punish- 
ment through inherent sequence and this is not 
vindictive but remedial. Such results turn men 
away from sin and are therefore truly beneficent in 
their operation. The utility, and even goodness of 
those human experiences which are seemingly un- 
pleasant, is aptly expressed by Browning : 

" Then welcome each rebuff 
That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go 1 
Be our joys three-parts pain ! 
Strive, and hold cheap the strain ; 
Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the 
throe ! " 

The great controversy which raged so long be- 
tween the advocates of "a limited Atonement," 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 189 

and one which was general has well nigh ceased. 
Whatever the differing opinions as to the quality 
of the work of Jesus, few, at present, question its 
general availability. It is unwise and uncalled for 
to revive any old controversy which is virtually 
settled. Almost the same might be said about the 
substitutionary theory, so far as actual current 
thought is concerned, but the official statements of 
the dogma still stand and thereby challenge honest 
criticism. If the "confessions" of a Church are 
not to be taken as authoritative, who shall define 
its position? Says the Westminster Confession, 
which for so long has been a standard : " The Lord 
Jesus by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of him- 
self hath fully satisfied the justice of his Father, 
and hath purchased reconciliation and entrance 
into the Kingdom of Heaven for all whom his 
Father hath given him." The great Roman and 
Greek churches state the dogma yet more strongly. 
Behold how rapidly such unworthy ideals of God 
are vanishing ! But for psychological reasons the 
concentrated imagination of ages cannot be dis- 
solved in a moment. Spiritual evolution is not true 
to its name unless it be gradual. 

In the past, theological speculation has often in- 
terpreted the cruel sacrificial rites of ancient Israel 



I90 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

as foreshadowings, or perhaps of shadows thrown 
backward of the great sacrifice on Calvary. But 
there is no proof of any such relation, and their 
moral unlikeness is pronounced. The change 
was rather a great step in the upward march of 
humanity. The whole system of placation through 
gifts, bribes, and blood was one in common with 
heathenish ideas and practices. It did not origi- 
nate with Moses, and he put limits upon the com- 
mon tendency so far as was practicable. It was 
discountenanced by the long line of Hebrew pro- 
phets which came after him. But for several 
centuries before the advent of Jesus it was very 
prevalent and the moral decline in Judaism was 
marked. Religion became a hollow shell and 
righteousness an empty ceremony. The " Son of 
Man " condemned such formalism in the strongest 
terms. In modern times the dogma of the divine 
appeasement which has occupied such a prominent 
place in the Christian system has been a great 
obstacle to spiritual progress. 

Punishment, as the sequence of guilt, is not 
bought or sold, and in the nature of the case is not 
commercially transferable. The sacrifices which 
lie in the pathway of a noble and unselfish life are 
not made by bargain or legal technicality. The 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 191 

martyrs of all ages have endured their trials because 
of their love of truth, principle, and righteousness. 
There was nothing in them of official obligation or 
imposition. There was always a dear object that 
was supreme which well-nigh transformed their 
pain into pleasure. Often they passed out of the 
body singing hymns of praise and rejoicing. But 
how different the victims which have been forced, 
and with the innocent animals whose blood has 
been poured out because it was thought that it 
pleased God ! Said the divine perception of Isaiah, 
the greatest of Hebrew prophets : " To what pur- 
pose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? 
saith the Lord : I am full of the burnt offerings of 
rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight not 
in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. 
When ye come to appear before me, who hath re- 
quired this at your hand, to trample my courts ? 
Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an abomi- 
nation unto me ; new moon and sabbath, the call- 
ing of assemblies — I cannot away with iniquity 
and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and 
your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a 
trouble unto me ; I am weary to bear them." The 
"word of the Lord" through Isaiah bears the 
stamp of greater purity and a higher inspiration 



192 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

than that of a majority of the early writers of Holy 
Writ. 

It is plain that Jesus did not regard himself as a 
propitiatory sacrifice or a divine credit for debt. 
He was rather the Bread of Life, the great Healer, 
the Door, or the Vine. But there are two or three 
passages which seem to carry the sacrificial idea, 
the most significant one of which, is: "And as 
they were eating, he took bread, and when he had 
blessed, he brake it, and gave to them, and said, 
Take ye : this is my body. And he took a cup, 
and when he had given thanks, he gave to them : 
and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, 
This is my blood of the covenant, which is shed for 
many." (Mark xiv, 22-24) This is so out of har- 
mony with his general teaching, that if taken liter- 
ally, it would seem to be a subsequent interpolation. 
Any single passage of Scripture should be inter- 
preted, not only in the light of the context, but of 
the general tenor and spirit of the subject as a 
whole. The letter of the passage forms the basis 
for the Roman Catholic dogma of transubstantia- 
tion, or it may suggest ideas yet more abnormal. 
But if its genuineness be unquestioned, in accord 
with the usages of Oriental imagery, it would signify 
that the flesh and blood, as symbolic of inmost 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 193 

moral quality, would remit or put away sin. The 
riddance of sin depends upon a likeness in character 
to that of Jesus. 

Regarding the various statements of St. Paul, 
which seem to bear the stamp of the propitiatory 
principle, it should not be forgotten that though he 
is called the Apostle to the Gentiles he was "a 
Hebrew of Hebrews," and that he endeavored to 
adapt the gospel to Jewish ideas and to win his 
countrymen. He was the product of, and steeped 
in, racial thought. Figures and symbols were 
carried over and made serviceable, so far as possible, 
in the enforcement of the reformed religion. Sac- 
rifice and offering for centuries had been stratified 
in Jewish thought, and much would survive the 
transition. The great ceremonial of their religion 
could not immediately vanish, and, at the least, 
sought some invisible correspondence. 

But Christianity has lived and will survive as an 
inner life, even though its technical theology be 
somewhat colored by pagan ideas. There is a 
true sacrificial philosophy, vitalized by love and 
unselfishness, in the sublime non-resistance which 
Jesus taught in plain terms. The world is full of 
voluntary self-sacrifice. But it is transformed by 
the beauty of its mission and becomes joyous in- 



194 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

stead of grievous. The greatest gift or tribute 
which can be presented to God or man is service, 
something of one's own self. The sacrifices made 
by devotion to paternal, filial, and other relations 
of wider range, become privileges and blessings. 
They are not legal purchases, or destructive in 
their working, for they conserve life and character. 
And now the supreme problem in the beneficent 
moral order which at first seems insoluble, is the 
universal mystic principle by which the innocent 
suffer, for, in, and with the guilty. The wife suf- 
fers for the sins of the husband, and the friend for 
those of the friend. The innocent members of the 
community suffer for its collective transgressions, 
and so through all the relations of complex life. 
Even nations suffer for each other's wrong-doing, 
in which they have no part. How can such a fun- 
damental and universal principle be reconciled with 
the goodness of God ? Only from the deeper and 
truer standpoint of racial solidarity. If each one 
suffered only and exactly for his own misdeeds, it 
might at first sight seem more just, but it would pro- 
mote selfishness. His motive for obedience soon 
would become narrowed to his own personality. 
He would care little for the course of others, pro- 
vided his own conduct were correct. But his 



SACRIFICE AND ATONEMENT 195 

peculiar interests are really bound up in a great 
bundle, and that must be covered by his care. 
Whether we will or not, we are our " brother's 
keeper." Nothing less than this law of inter- 
change and inclusion could educate us to human 
unity. The affairs of all are woven into one web, 
and cannot be disentangled. No man can afford 
to disregard the principle of vicarious love, and 
service, for its multiform lines cross each other like 
a net-work. Nothing less powerful and ubiquitous 
could ever stem the tide of selfishness. But com- 
paratively few yet fully realize the tremendous 
sweep of this divine ordinance. 

But true self-sacrifice is not the blotting out of 
self ; rather it consists of making the most of the 
individual. If there is to be bestowment, it should 
be rich and vital. A true self-love is not selfish- 
ness, and it is entirely consonant with love for 
others. Such an affection is only the overflow of 
the growing stock which is in store. Not only is 
the world helped by doing, but also by being. 
Every man should make the most of himself be- 
cause he is the means, as well as the end. The 
rounded moral and spiritual character of every 
man swells the intrinsic assets of the human 
world. 



XI 
THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 

A serious obstacle to the progress of religion, 
or Christianity in its broad sense, is the assump- 
tion of an official authority from the outside. Not 
merely in religion, but in civil affairs, in science, 
ethics, and every department of life, there is a 
growing idea and ideal of freedom in the modern 
consciousness. The divine right of government 
by kings was an evolutionary stage of the past. 
Men are coming to decline allegiance to edicts 
which come from over their heads, but increas- 
ingly respect the promptings of conscience and 
the higher intuitions from within. The force of 
all authority, which may be termed arbitrary in its 
nature, is visibly weakening. Evidence and rea- 
sonableness are demanded. Credentials must be 
exhibited and imposition is giving place to free 
expression. 

The ideal of civil and political government, is, 

that it shall be in and of the people, and that its 

proper origin is neither above nor outside of them. 

196 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 197 

Official exponents of the law are more truly ser- 
vants than masters. Their apparent domination 
is really but the instrumental channel for the self- 
expression of the freedom of the community. 
Back of the official, of whatever grade, stands 
the whole body politic. The ideal of a normal 
and inborn democracy is the distinguishing feature 
of the new time. It runs through every zone of 
life, spiritual, moral, ethical, political, and social. 
The arbitrary quality among the few remaining in- 
stitutions which have a monarchical spirit, is rapidly 
being shorn away. 

As evolutionary wheels do not turn backward, 
there is no probability that the general principle 
of absolutism will ever resume its sway. The 
human mind, as it advances in the search for 
truth, and in fuller self-manifestation, exults in 
its new-found freedom and overturns precedents, 
breaks over limitations, and questions traditional 
assumptions. If religion be a divine force in the 
soul, and the spiritual life an inward experience, it 
follows here, even more than elsewhere, that au- 
thoritative dictation is illogical. But a persistent 
conviction yet remains that a corresponding liberty 
should not supplant official Christianity. Man, 
instead of being a source, is expected to receive 



198 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

an alien application which has been prepared out- 
side. He is to submit to a system which is im- 
posed, and needs professional treatment. If he 
exercise his God-given quest for Reality and steps 
outside of certain fixed ecclesiastical limits, he is 
liable to be called a sceptic, or perhaps, even a 
"free thinker." To think without trammels may 
be noble and profitable, but in the past it meant 
opprobrium. Would it be strange if in due time 
it should be significant of honor ? 

Official Christianity is doubtless sincere in as- 
serting the authority of Dogma. It may be even 
admitted that as a stage of growth it naturally 
precedes the consciousness of inner light and 
freedom. In the evolutionary order the higher 
development and spontaneous expression come 
later. Whatever is "under authority" must be 
immature. The fact that the thraldom of eccle- 
siastical sovereignty is in decay speaks volumes for 
genuine spiritual advancement. No longer hedged 
in by intermediate formalities, man may come face 
to face with the direct divine guidance, the in- 
dwelling God. That, and that alone constitutes 
pure democracy in the spiritual zone. 

During the childish consciousness and crudity 
of human unfoldment, there is a place for gentle 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 199 

dictation. In its order it has been useful in the 
former time, and no contempt need be cast upon 
it. As a preparatory discipline it has done a 
work. But if the spirit of the present era seem 
unduly iconoclastic, it is but a natural reaction, a 
full swing of the pendulum. Reactions often go 
too far, temporarily, but the intrinsic elements of 
self -regulation from the subjective side, in due 
time, assert themselves. Reaction then reacts 
upon itself. Were it not for this compensatory 
law, it would seem desirable that dogmatic au- 
thority should not decline any more rapidly than 
the inner and truer guidance comes into evidence. 
A seething confusion caused by the mingling of 
these two counter currents characterizes the 
present period of transition. 

In the ethical, civil, and political domain, it is 
also plain that the reaction from formal and in- 
stituted authority may have proceeded too rapidly. 
Here is the same disorderly transition. A true 
democratic self-assertion can come only from more 
lofty ideals, moral education, and a development of 
individual righteousness which shall bring up the 
collective average. Democracy is good, but when 
forced* in advance of its evolutionary ripeness it 
may fruit in license, and a disregard of inner as 



200 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

well as external law and wholesome authority. 
New tyrannies introduce and install themselves in 
the name of liberty. 

The ideal utility of every institution in its time 
and place, forbids blame upon the Church for 
holding on to its authority so long as possible. Its 
replacement not as an educational institution, but 
as a ruling Authority, will quietly be accomplished 
as rapidly as the nature of things will allow. Far 
better, belief tinctured with error, and even super- 
stition, than no belief. Nothing is so doleful and 
barren as empty negation and indifference. The 
very activity of a strong dogmatic faith will tend 
to purify and broaden it. 

Thoughtful men often look askance at religious 
institutions, and avoid the Church, because Chris- 
tianity is presented as a coercive system, and as an 
element which is not native in their nature. Its 
appeals come in the light of an unwelcome neces- 
sity. It does not seem to be the emancipator 
which is ideal, and has not the aspect of "good 
news." In this era, when men are saturated with 
the spirit of democracy, whatever is arbitrary is 
received with suspicion. The distrust of the work- 
ingmen as well as the more highly educated part 
of the community is symptomatic. Whether or 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 201 

not this feeling is well founded, it exists. In view 
of prevailing conditions, shall Dogma continue its 
assertiveness ? In this connection it seems fitting 
to trace, briefly, something of the tendency of 
Authority, as shown in some of the broad ecclesi- 
astical movements of the past. Whether tested 
upon an extensive or limited scale, principles and 
systems measure themselves upon humanity. 

The Eastern, or so-called Orthodox Church most 
perfectly represents the spirit of absolutism. The 
dominant and all-embracing idea is Dogma. The 
grand purpose is to preserve intact, and impose 
certain forms and statements which are assumed 
to be final. The system, complex and fitting in 
every detail, has been closed and sealed, once for 
all. There is no room for growth or improvement. 
The natural outcome is moral paralysis and spiri- 
tual decay. Its ceremonies are dramatic and sen- 
suous, and their observance punctilious and formal. 
Its human product is superstition, ignorance, and 
a slavish subserviency. The political autocracy of 
Russia meets and becomes one at the apex with 
the Orthodox absolutism. Such a system of Au- 
thority exercises little shaping force upon the 
morals and ethics of its votaries, being quite dis- 
connected from practical life. 



202 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

After the Greek Church, next in order of tower- 
ing Authority comes the Roman establishment. 
Tradition admits of no modification of Dogma, and 
truth is assumed to be a completed quantity. Free 
thought and expression for the individual is danger- 
ous and prohibited. A spiritual and religious 
monarchy is the result. The Pope is the only 
divine channel and the highest duty is submission. 
As God's Vicegerent and infallible interpreter, 
obedience to him furnishes the only security. 
Logically, it is a most complete mechanism, and 
all its parts and details fit their places. 

It is evident, at a glance, that the Roman, like 
the Eastern Orthodox establishment, lies athwart 
the path of modern religious democracy and in- 
dividual free expression. It belongs to a former 
era when men could not be trusted, and when even 
the Bible could not be popularly received except 
as filtered through the channels of priestly inter- 
pretation and dogmatic shaping. It is a spiritual 
cosmology of the Ptolemaic era, a natural corres- 
pondence. That there is a rapid decline in the 
power and prestige of the Apostolic See is evident. 
From the early centuries down to the sixteenth, the 
Roman Hierarchy employed all available means to 
extend and consolidate its imperious sway. At 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 203 

the end of that period its supremacy was seem- 
ingly complete. The high and low, the king and 
peasant alike were humble suppliants. But it was 
soon to lose Great Britain, and most of the northern 
part of the Continent. Much more recently its 
dominion has been put off in Mexico and a portion 
of South America, and finally in Italy and France. 
The unnatural combination of Church and State has 
been repeatedly severed, and the process seems 
likely to continue. The width of the breach in 
France is significant. The expulsion of religious 
orders, the civil absorption of religious property, 
which was the result of long accumulation, with 
many other indications are all eloquent of the 
march toward complete disestablishment. Every- 
thing points toward religious liberty in the near 
future in all the countries of the civilized world. 
It is an interesting problem whether the Anglican 
Establishment will be wise enough to mark the 
universal trend toward religious emancipation, and 
gracefully bow to the inevitable, or cling tena- 
ciously to the reign of a regime which belongs 
more properly to the past. 

With all its faults and by-gone intolerance, the 
exponents of the Roman Church have been mainly 
sincere and its general work in its allotted time 



204 L IFE MORE ABUNDANT 

has been conserving and beneficent. As a great 
restraining moral and ethical force, and as a bul- 
wark against paganism, polytheism, and a blank 
atheism, it has been an important saving influence 
in the world. The higher evolutionary philosophy 
puts a beneficent interpretation upon the utility, 
or at least, the negative goodness of Dogma. 
Any system, even if mingled with grave errors, 
that is primarily designed to minister to the spiri- 
tual nature, will find a satisfied following on the 
plane of its own distinctive quality. No religious 
system is bad per se. As an institution of varying 
quality, the Papacy has received more painstaking 
devotion in past ages than is accorded to it to-day. 
Such as it was, it was thought to be so indispen- 
sable for salvation that people must have it forced 
upon them whether they would or no. This feel- 
ing, rather than any inherent love of cruelty, 
doubtless was the mainspring of much of the 
former religious persecution. The feeling was : 
" Save their souls," the most intrinsic and valuable 
part, even if, as a means, their bodies must be 
sacrificed. If baptism and assent meant eternal 
life, and non-compliance endless torment, it were 
a logical kindness to force submission, even with 
knife and fagot. Thus, the real savagery was in 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 205 

Dogma rather than in human nature and inten- 
tion. From this point of view, the Inquisition 
was a humane and beneficent institution. What 
was the value of bodily integrity for a few short 
years compared with an eternity of indescribable 
suffering ? 

But behold how Dogma has softened ! With 
traditions and edicts almost literally intact, as 
officially preserved, what a change in their spirit 
and life ! It shows that language matters little, 
while its interpretation is vital. The rigidity of 
Dogma is dissolving at its fountain head. The 
Roman Church of to-day, with all the retention of 
its absolutism and infallible authority, in form, is 
practically mild and apologetic, and undoubtedly 
is a wholesome power for good to the great 
majority of its adherents. Dogma in its modern 
mellowness is more wholesome than materialistic 
negation. It is far better to believe something 
than nothing. Then, if error be mingled with 
faith, the combination will gradually purify itself 
in spirit and practice. 

The Roman Church has been likened to a 
watchful mother, within whose arms its children 
can securely rest. They come to a place where 
there is no controversy, and where everything 



206 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

has been completely wrought out for them. There 
is no necessity for thinking. Long ago that has 
been done for them. Graceful conformity, which 
may sit lightly, is all that remains. It cannot be 
denied that temperamentally, there are many who 
wish to have all ultimate questions fully settled for 
them. Why should they trouble themselves about 
such things ? There are those who are far wiser, 
and whose official duty and privilege include a 
professional application of the Church's saving 
ordinances. But to what extent can one be 
"saved" by proxy? Are the avenues Godward 
entered through toll-gates, and can these be swung 
open by keepers of a certain official order. Does 
St. Peter, or any other saint, carry the keys ? To 
what extent can priestly absolution transform un- 
fitness into fitness, and turn the scales of righteous- 
ness and spiritual character. Here again, the 
evolutionary principle intervenes, and suggests : 
If direct effort and advancement be wanting, may 
not that at second hand be better than none? 
Yea, verily. 

To such as accept churchly, or any other outside 
Authority, the Roman communion is the logical 
finality. John Henry Newman honestly believed 
in the location of an infallible ecclesiastical Au- 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 207 

thority between God and man, and therefore his 
surrender to Rome was entirely logical. The sac- 
erdotal movement in the Anglican Church is 
Rome-ward by virtue of a psychological law which 
is as constant as gravitation. It is but a halting 
place on a direct highway. Between free and 
spiritually democratic Protestantism with its spon- 
taneous expression, and full-fledged dogmatic Au- 
thority there can be no intermediate finality. The 
latter discredits nature and the mind of man, and 
assumes that unbelief is inherent. It postulates 
the world as alien to God, and teaches that he can 
be approached through an outward organism, espe- 
cially set up for the purpose. Once introduce in- 
fallibility in any department of religious life and it 
must go into all. The infallible Bible must have 
an infallible interpretation by an infallible Church, 
with an infallible Head. But there is a missing 
link. The lack of an infallible people to receive 
it, brings fallibility into the whole. 

In Protestantism, using the term as inclusive of 
a great movement, there was a general rebellion 
against Authority. The protesting, or indepen- 
dent spirit in man against absolutism, in some de- 
gree has always asserted individuality, but in the 
sixteenth century it became a wide-spread coherent 



208 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

movement. The human conscience refused longer 
to be bound, and the revolt against Authority be- 
came formidable. The Roman Pontiff tried in 
vain to suppress it, and there began a conflict 
between traditional absolutism and free human ex- 
pression which is yet far from ended. In a word, 
the crucial question : Where is the real seat of 
Authority ? is ever repeated. Is human reason to 
be fettered and religion shut up in a sealed abode 
with certain exclusive keepers ? Is the most vital 
and sacred department of life to be forever barred 
against progress ? Are the only men, or orders of 
men, who are capable of receiving a divine revela- 
tion dead and turned to dust ? Is man in his God- 
ward aspiration to be held back, not only to second 
hand inspiration, but to the forms and limits im- 
posed during the very dawn of religious develop- 
ment? Luther, and soon after some other brave 
souls, answered this question in favor of the right 
of private judgment. 

As the Protestant movement became more gen- 
eral, well-defined efforts for its spread multiplied. 
With the Roman Hierarchy set aside, as final and 
ultimate Authority, there soon became a natural 
inquiry for a successor. Where now are your cre- 
dentials? What is the binding force for your 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 209 

teaching ? If not one kind of infallibility, there 
must be another. The time was not yet ripe for 
any general understanding of an indwelling God, 
or for the consciousness of a divine light or leading 
in the soul. The authority demanded was yet to 
be arbitrary, and from the outside. The evolution- 
ary level for democratic ideals, in religion, was still 
above and beyond the reach of that time. God's 
authority must still have visible form, and be 
backed by human prestige. For the Protestants, 
the Book was the only available answer to the 
demand. Infallibility was a required condition. 
Thus the inerrant Book, as an Oracle, took the 
place of the inerrant Pontiff. Whether or not 
divinely reasonable, you must believe so and so 
because God demands it in the Bible. It is his 
own voice and language. Thus, the human joy 
and inspiration of a direct approach to God was 
set aside, and scholastic and theological barriers 
imposed. The idea that God is a great King upon 
a throne — with human passions and limitations — 
and that the Bible is his literal proclamation, was 
the fundamental thought. What kingship — with 
a Roman background — implied in that age may 
be imagined. It was law, not love, imperious 
demand rather than Fatherly likeness and drawing. 



2IO LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

These, with a surrounding cluster of dogmas to 
match, defined the religion of that period. Noth- 
ing different could have been logically expected. 
Man's higher nature was repressed and outlawed. 
The Protestant movement soon took on the same 
spirit as its predecessor. The private conscience 
was seared, and to think freely about the truth 
which the Bible richly contains was impiety. 

To give the Book free course and let it speak 
for itself, was simply impossible to the intolerant 
thought of that age. In reality, it was not the 
Bible which was declared infallible, but only a cer- 
tain interpretation of it. Thus the sixteenth cen- 
tury became noted for the rise and spread of 
theological abstractions which were strongly en- 
forced. In the century following, these decrees 
and doctrines were gathered into creeds and con- 
fessions in rigid form. The most important one, 
the Westminster Confession, has come down to us 
as "a standard" and is still widely defended. It 
would be as reasonable for us to retain the sixteenth 
and seventeenth century standards in philosophy, 
ethics, physics, astronomy, science, and invention, 
as in those of religion. The fact that tenfold more 
light has come since those days, even upon the 
history and construction of the Bible itself, is widely 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 211 

ignored. The anathemas of the Almighty, forged 
by official ingenuity, descended upon the heads of 
those who failed to conform in this life, and were 
positively promised for the next. 

But the Protestantism of the present day is far 
more liberal. At least a considerable minority — 
perhaps majority — of its adherents do not insist 
upon biblical inerrancy and infallibility, a limited 
atonement, total depravity, or a doom of eternal 
torment. Those, also, who retain these dogmas, 
as a matter of form, hold them with a mildness 
and apologetic consideration which were formerly 
unknown. The re-interpretations made by the 
orthodoxy of the twentieth century would be un- 
recognizable by the ancestors from whom it came. 
Dogma rapidly declined during the nineteenth cen- 
tury, especially during its closing decades. Its 
aggressiveness has been turned into ineffectual de- 
fense. Instead of "speaking with authority" it 
seeks to find excuses for its existence. But yet, it 
often says, in substance : Believe the Bible as we 
believe it, or you do not believe it at all. But 
ecclesiastical censure now bears but a faint resem- 
blance to the thunder-bolts of the past. Most of 
the deeper thinkers in the Church now admit that 
all biblical interpretation and conclusion logically 



212 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

converge and ultimate in the spiritual perception of 
men. It must find not only its home but even its 
rise in the soul. 

Dogmatism requires that the admission of bibli- 
cal Authority be granted preliminary to the study 
of the Book, and thus every statement is judged in 
advance. Other literature is taken in its general 
tenor, while the Sacred Writings are often textually 
disjointed, and in arbitrary combinations made the 
foundation for theological systems. The un- 
reasonable use of " proof texts " and general sus- 
pension of all literary usage has rendered the Book 
unreal and unpractical to much of the trained 
thinking of our time. 

The scattered manuscripts from which the Bible 
was finally compiled make no claim of unique 
authority as a whole, for that was impossible. Who 
then knew what the Bible was to be ? That ques- 
tion was to be decided centuries later, after heated 
and hair-splitting argument, by a vote of the 
majority of a Council. Errors, mistranslations, and 
interpolations were evident, but they were ruled 
out. Reason must be suspended and an arbitrary 
dictation put in its place. Has not the time now 
arrived when the good old Book should be taken 
for what it really is ? Is it not plain that it is not 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 213 

a fetich, not a breastwork for the defense of dogma, 
not an abnormal or miraculous missive, but a Book, 
grand in its merit, superlative in its truth, and in- 
spired for the reason that it inspires life ? 

The ultimate Authority in religion will be 
admitted by all to be God himself. If man be 
intrinsically detached from God, it is evident that 
the divine quality must be conveyed through 
external device. But if the divine and the human 
are in normal contact, Authority must come through 
the living channels of the soul and not through 
hearsay or outward constituted authority. 

Protestantism, historically, in its essence was an 
avowed appeal to reason. In its larger sense, 
reason includes not merely the logical faculty, but 
all the higher perceiving and interpreting forces 
of the soul. Modern scepticism, now so prevalent, 
comes as the penalty for, and reaction from the 
claim of an unerring literalism which was the logical 
successor of the Papal assumption. The sceptic 
says to the literalist : Your Bible gives authority 
to hold slaves, practice polygamy, and it sanctions 
war and revenge, and the literalist cannot deny 
this from his own method of interpretation. 

Truth never can be in conflict with truth. 
Over and over again, that which has been assumed 



214 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

to be truth taught in the Bible has been found to 
be in opposition to undoubted verity in science 
and exact knowledge. A series of ignominious 
retreats has therefore followed the champions of 
traditionalism. Persecution, long so bitter, now 
having been thrust out by the spirit of the age, 
the search for truth can be full and untrammeled. 
"The truth shall make you free." 

There is a higher Authority than the world, or 
even the Church has generally recognized. It 
comes from God, or the Divine Spirit working 
through man. Jesus " spake as one having au- 
thority, and not as the scribes." The message of 
the prophet is positive, and carries intrinsic self- 
attestation while the utterance of the priest, en- 
tangled in form and ritual is uncertain. The seer 
cuts loose from the trammels of environment and 
the uncertainty of tradition, and makes himself a 
channel for the divinity within. His message 
touches a responsive chord in the heart of every 
hearer. He deals with axioms rather than un- 
known quantities. But his is not an exclusive 
order, for the prophetic instinct is at least latent 
in every human copy of the "divine image." The 
temple of old was cleared, not by the fear of " a 
whip of small cords," but by the terrible dignity 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 21 5 

of truth. Barriers have been erected between 
God and the soul which must be burned away, 
even though they may have religious labels. The 
leadings of the seer need no supporting argument 
because they are armed with conviction. Although 
the Prophet of Nazareth fulfilled and endorsed all 
the truth which had come into expression before 
his time, he was regarded as the typical iconoclast. 

It follows that that Authority which has the 
signet of the Infinite, needs no system of apolo- 
getics or exegesis, because it shines by its own 
light. That inner and self-attesting truth for 
which martyrs were willing to suffer was a matter 
of no uncertainty. "The pure in heart shall see 
God." Reality will stand out before them full- 
orbed, subject to no doubtful quest. The radical 
transition in the recognized seat of the ultimate 
Criterion which is now in progress is a return, or 
rather an advance to the ideal of Jesus. 

As man stands at the apex of the universal 
order, he must embody the truest and best of the 
divine creative fruitfulness. The authors of the 
Bible have their very important place, but to rank 
all the writings of other ages as relatively secular 
or profane is unwarranted. The full realization of 
truth and authority is an endless process, and we 



2l6 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

are in, and a part of that process. As Jesus 
severed the bonds of Jewish traditionalism and 
emancipated himself from the bondage of an ex- 
ternal order and cult, so this wonderful age is 
lifting the banner of a spiritual democracy. 

To cognize the Authority which is at the zenith, 
and feel its more vital relations, one must appre- 
hend the great evolutionary spiritual trend, and 
realize that he, himself, is a product of the past. 
Things are both old and new at the same time. 
To move forward with the universal drift is to 
anchor consciousness to the Eternal. Real Au- 
thority is an assertion of the divine Inmost. To 
arrest its free expression and put it in the con- 
gealed form of dogma is to deaden its vital au- 
thority and smother its life. 

Not the verbiage, but the glowing truth which 
flows through the Bible is infallible. There is but 
one form of captivity to which it is our privilege 
to yield, and that is a sweet subservience to spir- 
itual ideals. They not only mold us into their 
image but also constitute our highest Authority. 
The higher selfhood is crowned with its own 
authority and is above theology and dogma, for 
these linger upon the subordinate intellectual plane. 
True authority is, least of all, arbitrary, and true 



THE REAL SEAT OF AUTHORITY 21/ 

liberty is not license or disorder. The ultimate 
and perfected form of government will not depend 
upon external legislation, civil or religious, but upon 
that which is graphically written upon the tablets 
of the soul. In the final outcome, submission to 
the supreme Authority will be neither more nor 
less than unrestrained self-expression. All objec- 
tive pressure is to be relaxed and man is to shape 
himself to the divine Image and Likeness, as 
primarily installed. 



\ 



XII 

SALVATION 

The all-embracing theme and purpose of the 
Bible is human salvation. Not only Christianity, 
but practically all other systems of religion claim 
for their main object the saving of souls. The 
idea of two unlike conditions, one beneficent, con- 
structive, and harmonious, and the other the re- 
verse, thereby making an essential dualism in life 
and destiny, has been almost universal. Even 
monism — the doctrine of one — whether in an- 
cient or modern philosophic form, has its positive 
and negative aspects and sharp contrasts. The 
power of choice by the individual, and the results 
depending thereupon, form the vital issue of reli- 
gion, ethics, and, in a great degree, of philosophy. 
Even pure science, if defined as exact truth, might 
postulate salvation as attained harmony with en- 
vironment. 

"What shall I do to be saved," has been the 

cry of the soul through all the ages, and an intense 

quest for its true answer is universal. Its trans- 
218 



SALVATION 219 

cendent importance always has and will force it to 
the front. Not only in the problem of ultimate 
human destiny, but in a thousand subordinate 
forms it is always present. Men crave not only 
final salvation but they want to be saved every 
day. 

The popular idea of being saved, no less in 
ancient than in modern times, is an escape from, 
or avoidance of punishment. At the most, this is 
only a negative aspect. To save the soul, implies 
not only deliverance from the bondage of sin and 
error, but a conservation and development of posi- 
tive good. 

As the result of biblical literalism, the theology 
of reward and punishment has been arbitrary and 
unnatural. But at the present time, owing to the 
decay of a belief in a future dramatic judgment, a 
formal verdict, and a localized heaven and hell, the 
whole subject has lost most of its seriousness and 
is lightly regarded. A few decades ago when 
these dogmas were firmly held, and imposed by 
undoubted authority, the community was often 
definitely divided into two classes — the saved and 
the lost. But with the general modern prevalence 
of a belief in universal salvation, or at least of con- 
tinued progression, to which the orthodox bodies 



220 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

take little exception, the reaction has been great. 
One extreme has been followed by the other. The 
former anxious solicitation about making one's 
" calling and election sure," has been succeeded by 
a careless indifference and a feeling that judgment 
will be only favorable. Ideas of grave responsi- 
bility are lightly dismissed, and the descriptive 
terms in former use regarding retribution, often 
call out sarcasm if not derision. Reward and pun- 
ishment, as literally taught and imposed are gone, 
and their place is not yet rilled by any realization 
of the depth and seriousness of a truer psychologi- 
cal and subjective view. But every discarded dog- 
ma, even if literally untrue, has, hidden back of it, 
some inner law or truth, often of startling impor- 
tance. The transfer of what has seemed literal 
and objective to the inner consciousness, really 
deepens its significance. 

Theology without the light of related psycholog- 
ical laws and principles is radically incomplete. 
The present philosophy of the sub-conscious mind 
— that great lifelong accumulation which is below 
the ordinary cognizance of consciousness — re- 
solves many arbitrary doctrines of the past. Day 
by day every one is making up his own record, pro- 
viding for his own judgment, and fastening within 



SALVATION 221 

himself conditions of specific moral quality. In 
the light of a greater awakening, men will be 
brought face to face with their stored-up inquisi- 
tion, and the exposure will be searching and 
complete. Heavenly and hellish products are 
psychologically and scientifically engraved. 

There is an occasional experience in this life 
which throws much light upon the coming judg- 
ment, when the sub-conscious realm is lighted up 
and stands out before us. At rare times, perhaps 
most often made known by a resuscitated person 
after a drowning experience, the inner curtain is 
drawn back, and the conscious mind gets a quick 
panoramic view of the thoughts and conduct of a 
lifetime. This phenomenon though rare is very 
significant. It proves that no thought-image or 
mental impression has been obliterated, but is only 
temporarily out of sight. The dramatic symbolism 
of Revelation which portrays the general judgment, 
the great white throne, the spectacular gathering 
of all tribes and peoples and tongues, the opening 
of the seals of the Book, the sounding of the 
angels, the golden streets and precious stones, 
the pit of the abyss, and the smoke from it, as 
the smoke of a great furnace, and the great wealth 
of other imagery, find their solution and interpreta- 



222 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

tion in the unappreciated human sub-conscious do- 
main. Doubtless few theologians would now be 
found who literalize the Book of Revelation, which 
is nearly all made up of striking delineations in the 
nature of the few examples above quoted. But 
they have a meaning, and the only possible inter- 
pretation, must be found in the mysteries of the 
chambers of the soul. 

In the light of the subtle principles which per- 
vade the microcrosmic mind of man, what a respon- 
sibility is wrapped up in simple thinking ! Every 
mental image is like a photographic negative which 
stamps its impress — not upon paper, stone, or 
steel — but upon infinitely more durable material. 
There is a continuous creation, and its products are 
ever living and growing. Nothing has been so 
lightly regarded as a thought, but think of each 
volition making history. The " every idle word " 
for which men shall be judged, when interpreted, is 
a startling psychological truth. The judgment, 
from being a great formal gathering, arbitrary in 
character, located in the distant future, and in some 
unknown part of the cosmos, comes home, and is 
close fitting and virtually continuous. Every one, 
or rather the divine element in him, is rendering a 
continuous and unending verdict, even though not 



SALVATION 223 

yet opened up to consciousness. The sheep are pass- 
ing to the right hand, and the goats to the left. 
Every man contains and retains all he has been 
with growing emphasis. When fleshly coverings 
and limitations are removed, we shall be like a ship 
which has its manifest nailed up, plainly showing 
the composition of its cargo. 

Since Professor Drummond, as a pioneer among 
modern theologians, gave to the world his "Natu- 
ral Law in the Spiritual World," the progress of 
religious opinion has been rapid. That concept of 
the Deity which likened him to an Oriental Sov- 
ereign — capricious and ruling from without — is 
fading. The spiritual realm is within man, and 
this is where God's beautiful and orderly economy 
manifests its activity and finds its expression. Any 
scheme, consisting of a purchased release, or an 
artificial severing of cause and effect, is plainly 
against reason and justice. Were God's original 
plans unexpectedly defeated ? Though greatly 
modified in the present view, such a "plan of sal- 
vation'* remains of life size in the creeds. 

But from the evolutionary and psychological 
point of view, we must concede to past conven- 
tional thought a necessary place and time, as a 
stage of progress toward something higher. It 



224 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

must be passed through, and therefore has a kind of 
negative, disciplinary, and educational goodness. 
Nothing is finished, because there is a continuous 
becoming. The " Judgment Day " never began 
and never will end. Every principle, opinion, 
belief, and theory is being tested, measured, and 
given its award. The scene may not be so sensu- 
ously dramatic as that which literalism has accepted 
in prose, enshrined in poetry, and spread in glowing 
color upon canvas, but it has a deeper truth. 
The realism and literalism depicted by the art of 
the old masters of the mediaeval period, and the 
profound impression made by the Miltonian litera- 
ture are wonderfully expressive of an era of human 
thought, literal, severe, and intense. Such a judg- 
ment is now utterly discredited, but it had a meaning, 
and in the evolutionary order, formed a zone which 
had to be traversed before the £oal of a higher and 
purer ideal could be reached. The Bar of God is set 
up in man. " The Kingdom of God is within you." 
How then shall we be " saved " ? Saved from 
what ? From a low false consciousness ; from the 
Adamic concept that we are bodies ; from a 
slavery to conditions, limitations, and negations ; 
from mental pictures of evil and its power ; from 
beliefs in antagonisms, weaknesses, diseases, and 



SALVATION 225 

adversities ; from selfishness, hate, grief, and 
fear ; from pessimism and materialism. These 
are thought-creations which if allowed to ripen 
bring forth self-made hellish conditions. The im- 
mutable divine economy has placed the judge, 
judgment, and executioner within. Nothing in 
the whole universe of God can bring real harm 
from the outside. The God-voice in the soul of 
man, though still and small is a judicial utterance, 
distinct in its teaching, and to listen, is to discover 
the self and its bearings. 

While nothing inherently good can be destroyed, 
man can lose that which to him seems to be him- 
self. If one builds up a consciousness, or creates 
a thought-world, wherein he links the ego to the 
perishable and unreal (the " wood, hay, and stub- 
ble") he loses his seeming soul. Through a vital 
connection he builds these things into his personal- 
ity, and when they are swept away he has little by 
which to recognize himself. The inmost self is 
saved " as by fire,'* but the selfhood which he has 
created with all his familiar environment is lost. 
He has not brought the deeper individuality into 
recognition. For an age-long period, or until a 
new consciousness is developed, such a one is in a 
denuded condition, He has built a structure upon 



226 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

the sand of negation, and it is swept away. Does 
such a judicial discipline seem severe? When its 
origin is truly discerned, severe though it be, its 
processes may be reversed and its educational 
beneficence made plain. Then the soul will return 
from its mistaken by-way, and with dearly bought 
experience be drawn toward the Father's House. 
God is love and imposes arbitrary sentence upon 
no man. Man passes it upon himself and so 
finally makes the great discovery that retribution 
is in his very nature. Penalty, though of vital 
moment, is radically different from the arbitrary, 
vindictive, and lawless hell of former dogma. 
Life is conserved but will be entered with con- 
ditions of partial blindness, lameness, and deaf- 
ness, self-imposed through ignorance or careless- 
ness. But limitations will be finally outgrown. 

The stuff of which character is made is tested 
and fused, but the pure metal will remain uncon- 
sumed and unharmed. The biblical warnings, 
which are too numerous for present quotation, 
will be found, in their summing up, to be in har- 
mony with these conclusions. They warn us, in 
effect, that if through a disregard of spiritual law 
we hold back until a sensuous consciousness has 
solidified around us, its removal will strip us bare. 



SALVATION 227 

It is possible now to build an environment of the 
Real. Working with the law we no longer " kick 
against the pricks." More than this, we gain a 
backing of its supernal energy because salvation is 
normal. It is a harmonious fitting of our own con- 
stitution into the universal constitution. 

The characteristic of the present era is intel- 
lectual activity and development. This, though 
well in its place, is not a savior, but such an 
opinion prevails. Falling into the great world- 
current, even religion has largely been brought 
down to that plane. It has been rendered into a 
system of belief, or an assent to certain approved 
statements. But vastly more than that, salvation 
consists of the unfoldment of the higher part of 
man, or rather of the real self. Even theology, in 
the ordinary sense is secondary. To be saved 
completely, involves the emergence of the divine 
selfhood from latency into self-recognition and 
manifestation. It requires more than an intellec- 
tual belief in the personal Jesus, or an acceptance 
of his merits vicariously. It must include the 
normal development of the intrinsic and eternal 
Christ-mind or quality. While this was most fully 
expressed through the personality of Jesus, it 
knows no limitation, local or historic. 



228 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

An intellectual giant may be a spiritual weak- 
ling. He requires " saving " no less than his more 
ignorant brother who seems to be so much below 
him. " For the wisdom of this world is foolish- 
ness with God." Whatever is idolized, or stands 
in the place of that which is supreme, is a per- 
version. There is a normal proportion, good in 
itself, but its inversion transforms it into evil. 
Every one needs to be saved from an undue 
dominance of what is subordinate in moral and 
spiritual grade. The business man needs to be 
saved from his business, the lawyer from his law, 
and the capitalist from his capital. Even the 
scientist, the naturalist, or the philosopher must 
not give himself to his profession. The soul 
should not take firm root in anything less than the 
Eternal. It is not enough to send one's theories, 
his philosophy, his beliefs, his theology, or even 
his religion, higher ; he must go there himself. 
Full salvation involves the evolution of the spiri- 
tual self-consciousness, the building of a soul- 
structure of imperishable material. The ego must 
form an organic union with eternal and living 
verities. 

In the "judgment day" those things which 
pass to the "left hand" in the last analysis are 



SALVATION 229 

composed of negation and lack the divine basis of 
reality. It represents the objective nothingness 
of that which relatively is evil. It is the educa- 
tional background where we subjectively build up 
appearances, specters, and imaginings, only finally 
to learn that they are men of straw. It is the 
darkness through which by contrast we distin- 
guish and finally appreciate the light. 

We may then welcome the " day of judgment " 
and even retribution, for it, with all its pains, will 
come only as we need its purification. This know- 
ledge of its ultimatum will measurably strip it of 
its terrors. The pains of the fiery furnace will be 
bearable when we are persuaded that their age- 
long outcome and purpose is good. Thus we at 
length find that God, as Love, is All in All. 



XIII 

HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, AND 
TRANSLATIONS 

It is not the purpose, nor within the scope of 
this volume to attempt any exhaustive or technical 
study of the books of the Old and New Testaments. 
That work is being done by trained specialists, and 
requires a peculiar equipment which is not common, 
and to which the author makes no claim. The 
general inquirer who would learn the truth con- 
cerning the making of the Bible in its present 
form must give due regard to the best obtainable 
authority, carefully weighing the evidence and 
probability, so far as is possible. Actual history, 
and formal proof for much which it would be de- 
sirable to know, are meager, and so far as spiritual 
values are concerned the internal evidence is by 
far the most important. The limited survey which 
follows is compiled from a careful comparison be- 
tween the most scholarly and well recognized 
authorities who are conservative in their general 

conclusions. They are reverent in spirit and con- 
230 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 231 

structive in temper. Critical and technical re- 
search shows that the ancient Hebrew traditions 
are often unreliable, and that careful discrimination 
is indispensable. 

The Pentateuch, or first five books of the Old 
Testament, the authorship of which for so long 
was attributed to Moses, is now generally believed 
to be a collective growth probably compiled at a 
much later period. Varying literary style and 
construction, tone and motive, the inclusion of 
scattered epochs, the account of Moses' death, and 
various other reasons make the above conclusion 
logical, if not entirely positive. The book of 
Joshua bears a close relation to the Pentateuch, 
being a continuation of it in general character. 

The order in which the various books of the 
Old Testament appear is no indication of the 
chronological order of their production. That 
noble epic which so grandly portrays the process 
of soul development, named Job, is thought to be 
one of the most ancient of the biblical books. 
The book of Judges includes the narratives of the 
successive Judges of Israel gathered by some un- 
known compiler. The histories given in the two 
books of Samuel are thought to be by some writer, 
perhaps belonging to the court of David. First 



232 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

and Second Kings, and also Chronicles bear evi- 
dence of the authorship of some unknown scribe. 
Ezra and Nehemiah, which contain an account of 
the lives and work of the prophets named, were 
evidently written after the Return, and are thought 
to be the work of some Jewish chronicler of offi- 
cial rank. The poetic collection called the Psalms, 
a national book of religious songs, bears evidence 
of varied authorship in addition to that of David. 
The compilation of wise sayings named Proverbs, 
though called after Solomon, was probably the 
work of various writers who lived both before and 
after him. 

Of the remaining books of the Old Testament, 
which form an important part of the Sacred Writ- 
ings of ancient Israel, there is also much uncertainty 
as to their exact authorship and respective dates. 
At the best there can be but an approximation to 
the actual historic facts. The latest and most 
careful criticism makes the authorship of fourteen 
of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament fairly 
sure with parts of some others. 

The authors, as well as the Scribes of ancient 
Israel, were mainly compilers and copyists. The 
writings of the nation, whether religious, political, 
or historical, were common property. There was 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 233 

no copyright law or custom of literary ownership. 
Individuals as they were moved or " inspired " 
added their quota to the common stock. Valuation 
was internal rather than dependent upon the name 
of the writer. 

As to the authorship of the books of the New 
Testament, there is a much greater certainty. The 
four Evangelists whose names are given to their 
Gospels undoubtedly wrote or edited them in great 
degree. Luke was also the author of the Acts. 
The letters or Epistles, with the exception of 
Hebrews, bear the names of their writers. But 
the reader of the Bible who peruses it for its spirit 
and inspirational quality, places little emphasis 
upon authorship. As the power of the Bible lies 
deeper than the letter or any external authority, 
the earnest seeker for truth need not concern him- 
self if some former or traditional suppositions are 
disturbed, or even overthrown. Each writer, what- 
ever his name or official standing, is the unique 
channel for a spiritual message. "He that hath 
ears to hear let him hear." Whoever may be the 
mouthpiece, it is the Spirit that speaketh unto the 
churches. That the glad tidings are colored or 
modified by each human expositor makes it more 
peculiarly fitting for different classes, and for all 



234 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

sorts and conditions of men. It would seem that 
even a glance at the history of the manuscripts 
which form the basis of the Bible, as we have it 
to-day, should be sufficient to dispel any idea of 
"inerrancy" and of homage to the letter. 

There is not the slightest reason to think that 
the Evangelists made any record of the words of 
Jesus as they fell from his lips. The closest in- 
vestigation shows that the earliest of the Gospels 
was not written until from thirty-five to fifty years 
had elapsed after the recorded transactions. Any 
accuracy of language beyond a mingling of memory 
and general tradition is improbable. About fifty 
years passed after the active ministry of Jesus 
before the Acts of the Apostles was written. In 
the meantime, a theory of the meaning and purpose 
of his life had become general and met with accept- 
ance. Thus it is evident that the dogma of the 
infallible perfection and inspiration of the text of 
this, as of other parts of the Bible, is unreasonable 
if not impossible. The mere fact that there is a 
Revised Version giving more correct and often 
modified meaning to many passages in translation 
should be conclusive as to the theory of inerrancy. 

If infallibility in the letter of the Bible existed 
anywhere, it must have been inherent in the orig- 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 235 

inal manuscripts, as they came from the hands of 
their authors. But even were it admitted that they 
were but amanuenses receiving the word by direct 
dictation, it remains that the writings were long 
ago scattered and lost beyond recovery, and that 
their gathering and unification has been fragmen- 
tary and uncertain. The most thorough scholar- 
ship is now employed in a reverent effort to find 
out the purpose of their messages and the motive 
and conditions under which they gained currency. 
The significant fact is, that these men had vital 
spiritual truth, a knowledge of which the world 
greatly needed. The outward verbiage through 
which it was conveyed is but the husk which en- 
closes the fruit. It would be as reasonable to 
identify divinity with every detail of their manners 
and costume as with every form and peculiarity of 
their diction. 

In ancient times any book was called a bible. 
It is believed that Chrysostom, in the fifth century, 
was the first to employ the Greek Biblia (the 
books), as applied to the Hebrew sacred writings, 
and so it came into use in the Eastern Church. 
They usually were made in the form of a scroll 
and the text was on parchment or more commonly 
papyrus, a kind of paper made from a water-plant. 



236 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Each copy, and there were comparatively few, was 
made by a scribe or regular copyist. The books 
were called "The Law and the Prophets," or 
" Holy Scriptures," before the inclusion of the 
writings afterwards designated as the New Testa- 
ment. The durability of the books which were 
written on papyrus was quite limited. The com- 
position of the books of the Old Testament 
spreads over a period of about twelve hundred 
years, and they were gathered somewhat in their 
present form about a century before the Christian 
Era. None of the earliest manuscripts of the Bible 
have survived, and only fragmentary copies of copies, 
scattered and considerably incoherent have been 
preserved. The oldest existing New Testament 
manuscripts were made hundreds of years later 
than those by the original writers. Only by care- 
ful comparison of widely scattered remains can the 
text of the originals be approximated. Nearly two 
thousand manuscripts of portions of the Old Tes- 
tament are now in existence, none of them being 
older than about 1,000 a.d. The most careful 
examination of them has shown a variation in 
about 150,000 passages, though nearly all the 
differences are unimportant. While a supersti- 
tious veneration of the letter strongly aided pre- 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 237 

servation, there are indications that before the 
text assumed its present form the versions in 
other tongues show differences which cannot be 
traced in any manuscript now in existence. 

The writings which make up the New Testa- 
ment had no such systematic copying as was done 
by the older professional Scribes. Though so 
much more recent than " The Law and the Proph- 
ets," their variations are yet more numerous. Of 
the fifteen hundred or more partial New Testa- 
ment manuscripts now preserved, dating from the 
fourth to the sixteenth century, the variations are 
important and the original signatures of the au- 
thors have been copied and re-copied indefinitely. 
They are generally in Greek, though sometimes 
accompanied by a Latin translation. Besides the 
regular manuscripts before mentioned, early trans- 
lations were made into the tongues of other coun- 
tries where the Hebrew or Greek was not spoken. 
Through careful comparison these have been use- 
ful in confirming or correcting the differences 
before noticed. 

The version of the Bible called the Vulgate, 
from the old Latin, was undertaken by Jerome at 
the order of Pope Damasus in a.d. 382. In 
the sixteenth century the Protestant and Roman 



238 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

Catholic Churches took different courses as to 
their chosen versions of the Bible. The Lutheran 
party after considerable controversy settled upon 
the pure and full biblical canon as is held by the 
Protestants of to-day. The same held true of the 
Swiss or Reformed party, and through them, and 
by way of the Westminster Confession of Faith, 
we have received our present body of sacred 
Scripture. The Roman Catholic Church, in its 
Council of Trent in a.d. 1545, adopted the Old 
Testament Apocrypha as an integral part of the 
Old Testament canon. In 1582 a New Testa- 
ment was issued by the English Catholic Church 
at Rheims, and the Old Testament in 1609 at 
Douay, France. Before the latter publication, the 
standard text had been fixed and proclaimed by 
the Holy See. Several private revisions have 
since been made by scholars in the Catholic 
Church, but as the matter had been already offi- 
cially settled they received no sanction. 

The Gospels are not as much direct histories of 
Jesus, as impressions, traditions, and ideals of him 
which grew up after the close of his earthly career. 
He left no manuscript, and so far as known no 
directions or arrangements for the copying and 
promulgation of his sayings. There was no logi- 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 239 

cal motive for any effort toward their preservation 
among his followers, for they expected his early 
reappearance, the setting up of his kingly author- 
ity, and the establishment of the national suprem- 
acy. When at length the records began to be 
made and the traditions revived, it is evident that 
variations instead of one fixed account would 
appear. Each memory, even of the same events, 
would have its special emphasis and color. But 
the general ideal of all would be Messiahship. 
"When at length the ideal of a temporal reign 
gradually began to give place to that of a more 
spiritual and moral leadership, his mission became 
increasingly clarified. Still later this was again 
obscured by theological dogmatism and specula- 
tion. 

The idea that the Bible in some miraculous way 
came down from heaven in complete form, has filled 
the imagination of men, even in spite of its known 
history and certain gradual accretion. Miracles, 
with superstition, were grouped around it, and they 
increased with time and distance. The Book 
steadily took on the character of a shrine and 
oracle, and there is no possible doubt about its 
growth, step by step. After the time of Ezra, the 
Scribe, the professional exponents of the biblical 



240 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

economy copied and excluded by a process of 
natural selection. There was no technical test or 
exact standard, but the problem of the Old Testa- 
ment canon solved itself through the spiritual con- 
sciousness of men. About the time of the advent 
of Jesus, Josephus, and the Hebrew authorities 
generally, recognized as sacred substantially the 
same writings which are included to-day. But, as 
before indicated, other books, apocryphal in charac- 
ter, were ranked next to them, and afterwards often 
classed or confused with them. 

The books of final selection were called the ca- 
nonical ones, and the others the uncanonical. Can- 
onization signifies measured, approved. When 
officially sanctioned by Church councils, any reli- 
gious rules or laws become canonical. At the time 
of the Reformation when the Protestant churches 
transferred their authority from the Church to the 
Bible, the distinction with them became fixed. But 
since that time the Apocrypha, or uncanonical books 
often have been used as an accompaniment to the 
regular Scriptures. References are frequent in the 
Old Testament to other books outside the canon. 

The canon of the New Testament was as much 
a matter of growth and natural selection as the 
Old. It was a gradual and unconscious shaping 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 241 

based upon inner vitality rather than external au- 
thority. The vote of councils was but a formal 
confirmation of the general verdict, as spontane- 
ously arrived at. 

Jesus proclaimed not a code of morals, or ethics, 
but a living gospel, not words to be recorded, but 
divinity in humanity. From recollection and repu- 
tation, his disciples from time to time made records 
for preservation of the sayings and doings of the 
three years' ministry. About the same time, Paul's 
letters to the churches, outlining the practical ap- 
plication of the words of Jesus, became enshrined 
in the memory and consciousness of the growing 
numbers of Christians, Hebrew and Gentile. The 
four Gospels, though aiming to portray the same 
experiences, are so unlike in tone and standpoint 
that they fully reveal the peculiar individuality of 
the writers. 

Besides the letters of Paul, other apostles and 
teachers wrote their interpretations of the life and 
words of Jesus. And thus the isolated and frag- 
mentary parts of the New Testament at length 
became crystallized, and in due time canonized. 
But the process was long and slow, and accom- 
panied by much speculation and controversy. 

The Council of Carthage about the close of the 



242 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

fourth century ratified the canon for the churches 
of the West, substantially in its present order 
and form. But there remained some moral doubt, 
especially regarding the Hebrews, Second Peter, 
and James, and this uncertainty was felt even as 
late as the Reformation, and was shared by Luther 
and Calvin. The Roman Catholic Church has al- 
ways regarded the Bible as secondary in authority, 
a book needing official interpretation and explan- 
ation. Supreme authority being vested in the 
Pope and Church, the common people were re- 
strained from direct contact with the Book. The 
right of private judgment was unrecognized and 
priestly control supreme. 

The first crude effort to put the Bible into 
English vernacular was made by Caedmon in the 
seventh century, in poetic style. It was not a 
translation but a continuous story told by him in 
the very imperfect language of that day. A little 
later an effort at translation was made by Bede\ 
who at length became known as "the monk of 
Jarrow." He put the Gospel of St. John into the 
very imperfect English of the time, and its teach- 
ing was a development among the roots of early 
English literature. But the beginnings of the 
written Anglo-Saxon tongue were well nigh ob- 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 243 

literated by the Norman Conquest. A new lan- 
guage was gradually forming, but not until the 
fourteenth century did it become coherent and 
general, largely through Chaucer and his Canter- 
bury Tales. About this time Wycliffe planned to 
produce an English Bible, so much needed by the 
common people. He was summoned before the 
papal tribunal by the Archbishop, but being be- 
friended by royalty, at length, in spite of ecclesi- 
astical opposition he produced the desired trans- 
lation. With the assistance of his " poor priests " 
a large number of copies at great labor and expense 
were made by hand, of which more than a hundred 
of the first edition are still in existence. He was 
bitterly persecuted while he lived, and nearly half 
a century after his death, by ecclesiastical decree, 
his body was disinterred, burned, and the ashes 
cast out upon the river which ran past his church. 
Persecution after persecution followed, and it be- 
came a capital crime to read or possess a copy of 
the English Scriptures. In hundreds of cases 
torture and death were the result of such offenses. 
Another century brought the art of printing, and 
the ability to read became more general. The 
next martyr to biblical translation was William 
Tyndale, a student of Oxford, who translated the 



244 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

New Testament from the Greek. After years of 
persecution he was strangled and burned at the 
stake in 1536. In the meantime, though contra- 
band and possessed only in secret, copies of 
the Scriptures steadily multiplied. Soon after 
Tyndale's death, Coverdale issued the first entire 
English Bible. Other versions followed, founded 
upon that of Tyndale. A little later an edition 
was printed in Geneva, when for the first time 
a division was made into chapters and verses. 
Toward the close of the sixteenth century, the 
Bible in England met with royal favor and popular 
demand. Persecution ceased. 

Early in the seventeenth century, a new and 
authorized version was prepared under royal patron- 
age. King James appointed a number of eminent 
scholars, and through them after great care and 
labor, the work in due time was completed. In 
161 1, the version since known as the King James 
Bible was issued, and it has remained as the Prot- 
estant standard down to recent times. 

But the modern English is changing so rapidly, 
both in terms and in their significance that the 
need of a version, more perfect in adaptation was 
strongly felt both in England and America during 
the latter part of the nineteenth century. Thou- 



HISTORY, MANUSCRIPTS, ETC. 245 

sands of archaic and unsuitable words had been 
retained, and with hundreds of additional manu- 
scripts, and vastly superior scholarship it was felt 
that a version was possible which would be far 
more correct and better suited to modern require- 
ments than the time-honored volume which has 
come down from the days of King James. 

In 1870, through the cooperative efforts of 
companies of eminent scholars in England and 
America, and after about fifteen years of careful 
study and general review, the Revised Version 
was completed and introduced in both countries. 
As to exact forms of expression, a large number 
of differences of opinion, mainly unimportant, de- 
veloped between the English and American colla- 
borators, but the text preferred by the former was 
adopted with marginal references of the variations 
for convenience. But in 1 901, an edition was 
published by Thomas Nelson and Sons in New 
York, which embodies the complete text in the 
form preferred by the American translators. It 
is called the American Standard Edition. 

There has been a feeling that the Book could 
not be trusted to stand alone — upon its merits — 
and that some kind of official explanation should 
accompany it. Exegeses and commentaries have 



246 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

been multiplied, and theologies have been invoked 
to "steady the Ark of the Lord" by supernatural 
props and defenses. But its inherent spiritual 
quality and power should be sufficiently plain to 
show its divine character. Its substantial utility 
resides, not in its rules, doctrines, or thou shalt 
nots, but in its ability to awaken the spiritual 
consciousness in man. Amid all the mutations of 
the text of the Book, in the attempt to adapt it to 
the ever-changing significance of language which 
is in a constant state of flux, no one need mistake 
the inner spiritual import, which, like an unseen 
unitary strand of gold, runs from the beginning to 
the end of the Sacred Word. 



XIV 

FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 

There is no principle made more prominent in 
the Bible than the saving power of faith. It is 
everywhere presented as the vital force in man, 
the motive power of the religious life. "Accord- 
ing to thy faith be it unto thee," was an ex- 
pression so often used by Jesus — literally or in 
substance — that it may be regarded as spiritually 
axiomatic. Though employed by him, perhaps 
more distinctively in reference to the healing of 
disease, its wider application is everywhere im- 
plied. Faith is the mainspring of all progress. 
Only by its exercise can we live with vigor. It is 
the fountain of all joy, action, and hope, and its 
dynamic is exercised upon unseen verities. Faith 
in God, in his infinite intelligence and rule, is the 
great power which moves the world. Its relation 
to the growth and upliftment of the human soul is 
as strong and intimate as that of the sun to the 
animate natural world. If doubt and unbelief are 

allowed to interpose, a chill takes the place of 

247 



248 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

warmth, and the glory of life departs. Like a 
landscape over which a frost has past its beauty is 
withered. 

It is not easy to interpret faith and its exercise 
in that which is unseen, into modern expressive 
terms. It is unfortunate, that to many the lan- 
guage of Scripture has become formal and rigid, 
and thus its adaptability to the actual life of to-day 
is weakened. It seems so far away to the daily 
consciousness that it needs a new translation to 
bring it into closer touch with the feeling of man- 
kind. As a real force, which is governed by exact 
law, it is both scientific and cultivable. The rec- 
ognition of the reign of " natural law in the spiri- 
tual world," as the overshadowing truth of the 
divine order, is the glory of the recent time. Faith 
is not mere expectation, or hope, but present sub- 
stance. The highest tribute which was paid to 
the eminent characters of the Bible was that they 
were filled with faith, and it has lost none of its 
old-time potency. The illumined will is the divine 
energy working in the inner man. It takes hold 
of forces which are infinite, and nothing can with- 
stand its might. "And the Lord said, If ye have 
faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto 
this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 249 

planted in the sea ; and it would have obeyed you." 
(Luke xvii, 6) These words of Jesus are an ex- 
ample of Oriental hyperbole, and their symbolic 
meaning could not well be stronger. They con- 
stitute a description of power with a superlative 
emphasis. 

But there is no other fundamental principle so 
lightly rated by modern and conventional thought 
as faith. No other important quality of soul is so 
little understood, whether viewed abstractly, or in 
practical working. It is popularly estimated as a 
kind of unreasonable credulity, or perhaps simply 
as a vague hope for something which is distant. It 
is felt that for remote biblical times, it perhaps 
was fitting, but that it has little place in a scien- 
tific age. As a common term it has largely passed 
out of use, and " philosophical idealism " implies 
about as much of its inner significance as is 
thought to be in accord with the spirit of the age. 
It is no reflection upon "the scientific method" to 
suggest that the scope of its application should be 
broadened, so that its exercise be not limited to 
the intellectual and sensuous realm. The deeper 
problems of the soul are as amenable to orderly 
investigation as those of chemistry and physics. 
Psychology, subjective activity, consciousness, and 



250 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

spiritual evolution have their inherent laws which 
may be systematically studied and found cohe- 
rent. 

Faith, as a dominant force in the invisible realm, 
appears elusive and unreal. Whatever there is of 
it seems like a harmless enthusiasm which is vola- 
tile, or perhaps a temperamental peculiarity. 
Rather it is a mystic energy, boundless in its re- 
sources and of wonderful utility and potential 
increase. One may naturally inquire : How can I 
have more faith or spiritual certitude than I now 
possess, except it be upon some new presentation 
of outward evidence ? But its growth is from 
within. A prisoner who is wholly shut off from 
Bible, book, or personal communication may culti- 
vate and greatly increase it. Internal nourish- 
ment may be adequate without word or hint from 
objective sources. Evidence which is external to 
the soul may be useful, but it is not indispensable. 
The roots of faith are bedded in the recesses of 
being. On the contrary, trust in the things of 
sense depends upon observation or testimony upon 
its own plane. Because many travelers have 
visited China, and told us of its characteristic fea- 
tures, and of their own experiences while there, we 
believe in the existence of such a country without 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 25 1 

a personal visit. This kind of belief is in multi- 
form use in the daily current of life. 

Spiritual assurance is an achievement rather 
than a gift. Everything has its purchase price, 
and unseen verities are no exception. A positive 
conviction of the reality of spiritual values must 
largely lack immediate external confirmation. In 
the matter of fact atmosphere of the present era 
one may well ask himself, how far it is practic- 
able to "walk by faith and not by sight." Just 
here is a focal point where the Bible should be- 
come a mirror for the life of to-day. 

Far above all dogma, theology, and circum- 
stance which men discover in Holy Writ, there 
shines out the towering principle of divine assur- 
ance and overruling good. A well grounded con- 
fidence in the issues of life is the exponent of 
spiritual sanity. It is the sounding keynote which 
is dominant in the history of the Old Dispensa- 
tion and the New. Jesus did not teach doctrinal 
theology, but in season and out he discoursed 
upon the value of vigor in the inner life. This 
formed the substance of his oft repeated aphor- 
isms and was enforced with all the wealth of 
Oriental imagery. The Pentecostal demonstra- 
tion which followed his departure into the unseen, 



252 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

was an object lesson of the force of faith over 
sight. Its dominance over doctrine, in the Sacred 
Word, is as marked as that of the sun over the 
moon in the solar system. 

The Bible is valuable to-day just in proportion 
that modern conditions are adjusted to its truth. 
Its inelastic letter does not fit different ages, but 
its deeper energizing force is perennial. Secta- 
rian opinions, scholastic conceptions, and ethical 
standards come and go, but the divine dynamic 
which is stored in the soul is the same, yesterday, 
to-day, and forever. The present profound lack 
is in the motive power of love, with faith, God- 
ward and manward. A more direct connection 
with the universal "power-house" is needed. As 
a spiritual balance-wheel the divine impetus is 
even more important in an intellectual age than 
in one of inferior technical development. Untem- 
pered knowledge becomes top-heavy for lack of 
subjective poise. 

In the language of Paul, faith is the assurance 
of things hoped for and the proving of things not 
seen. After things are seen, proving has lost its 
office. The future is not hoped and waited for, 
but brought into the present. The spiritual will 
is the helmsman of the voyage of life. Spiritual 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 253 

certitude deals with what is yet unmanifest, and 
in proportion to its intensity it brings possibility 
into actuality. 

Any thorough study of the successive strata of 
the soul discloses the intuitive powers as higher in 
rank than those of the purely intellectual faculty. 
But this is no disparagement of the latter, in its 
own province, for there should be cooperation and 
an intermingling. With all the wonders of mod- 
ern scientific development, the present era is no- 
table for unbelief and faithlessness. The conclu- 
sions of the Spirit seem like foolishness to the 
logician. Even "a sign from heaven" to find 
acceptance must pass through the retorts of the 
laboratory. Spiritual laws and forces elude us 
because we demand evidence which does not be- 
long to them. Analysis is useful in physics and 
chemistry, but spiritual values cannot be laid open 
for dissection. 

The Primitive Church was childlike and tech- 
nically unproficient, but there was the exercise of 
a far more prevailing faith and corresponding 
"wonderful works" than this age knows how to 
command. In worldly lore it was but a low devel- 
opment, but with all our feeling of great superior- 
ity we might learn much from it. The waning of 



254 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

the inner glow of the soul is a loss which is 
beyond estimate. Dogma may be recited and 
receive assent, but it does not furnish spiritual 
invigoration. 

A well rounded faith has no element of uncer- 
tainty, for its clear-sightedness reveals credentials 
which are self-attesting. Its potency also blos- 
soms into visible blessing because it has radiant 
energy. Assurance in God, linked to trust in 
the spiritual selfhood, makes an invincible com- 
bination. Through its channel in the human soul 
flows the divine potential. 

Almost the only reproof which Jesus adminis- 
tered to his immediate followers may be summed 
up in the words so often repeated : " O ye of little 
faith ! " Like the world of to-day they were prone 
to walk by sight. Until the inner fountain is un- 
sealed, spiritual assurance is feeble and formal. 
The lower currents of our mental environment 
chill and paralyze the higher life, while a culti- 
vated faith will reflect back upon us all the warmth 
we put in, supplemented by a constant growth. 
In order to a realization of spiritual values, 
isolation from the world and contact with the 
divine, at least at special seasons, is necessary. 
Divine assurance is the grand ideal. To seek 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 255 

its companionship with an undoubting spirit, in- 
volves a positive response and provides for its 
steady possession. 

Our righteous judgment of any one must be in 
the light of his aims and not entirely based upon 
his completed attainments. He is the actual 
owner of the fruitage of his ideals, even though 
they now be only in the bud. By faith they are 
potential, and are actually wrapped up within him. 
Correct spiritual accounting credits him with what 
he has set his heart upon, for faith brings the 
treasures of the future into the soul's present as- 
sets. Contrary to general opinion the riches of 
the idealist are very real. Beauty is no more an 
abstract quality with him but practically his very 
own. God is not only God, but his God. Through 
the legitimate ownership conferred by faith, Paul's 
sweeping declaration : " All things are yours ! " is 
sober truth. If such a realization appears like an 
impossible attainment, it is of the utmost im- 
portance that we begin its cultivation now. To 
the material consciousness, spiritual riches drawn 
from the future seems like a mystery, if not a 
negation. No argument or doctrine will prove its 
validity, for only the heart can understand its 
power. 



256 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

That concentrative thought is creative, and that 
it may be a powerful auxiliary to spiritual certi- 
tude, is a law which is but slightly appreciated. 
But through its exercise consciousness may be 
reconstructed. Take an illustration. One is well 
convinced that love is a high privilege and duty. 
He should love his friend, neighbor, and even 
enemy, but he fails to have any feeling or warm 
sensibility in that direction. It does not come 
spontaneously, and he would like to increase it, 
but does not discern the means. How shall it be 
awakened from latency and become manifest, at 
least in his own consciousness ? Concentrated 
thought upon it tends to make it live, in and 
before him. There grows up a subjective nucleus 
which is powerful and effective. In due time it 
will find objective overflow through fitting chan- 
nels. As a secondary creator man may thus re- 
form his own consciousness. By immutable law 
he approximates toward the likeness of the " pat- 
tern in the mount." " As a man thinketh in his 
heart so is he." Paul, in his directions for growth, 
showed himself to be a psychological expert. 
He said: "Think on these things." The things 
mentioned were definite ideals. One may choose 
and hold them until they stamp their deep impress 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 257 

upon his life and consciousness, and virtually be- 
come a part of him. 

The spiritual realm is all about us, though in- 
tangible to our physical equipment. "For the 
things which are seen are temporal ; but the 
things which are not seen are eternal." Our 
deepest and most real life, here and now, is within 
the realm of spirit. But the daily thought is al- 
most entirely of the things of sense. While Om- 
nipresent Spirit is in and around us, we reason 
and converse almost entirely in terms of matter. 
The supersensuous realm seems distant, or is rele- 
gated to the dim future. We are like the fishes 
and the lark : 

" ' Oh, where is the sea ? ' the fishes cried, 
As they swam the crystal clearness through ; 
' We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide, 
And we long to look on the waters blue. 
The wise ones speak of an infinite sea, 
Oh, who can tell us if such there be.' 

" The lark flew up in the morning bright, 
And sung and balanced on sunny wings ; 
And this was its song : ' I see the light, 
I look on the world of beautiful things ; 
But flying or singing everywhere, 
In vain I have searched to find the air.' " 



258 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

The real life beneath the seething surface of 
the sensuous plane is lived in God. Spirit is the 
great reality. Our seen environment which ap- 
pears so firm and enduring is like a shadow in 
comparison with that subtle energy which forms 
its basis. This orderly force builds up forms and 
blossoms in seen organisms, while its great cur- 
rent, which is not now in manifestation flows on 
unspent and undiminshed. That which is objec- 
tively solidified is but an infinitesimal part of the 
great Whole. No dust can be found which has 
not over and over again been seized, animated, and 
shaped by its vital force. 

O, how the world is bound and deceived by the 
limitations of the seen ! Human traditions, insti- 
tutions, and activities are benumbed by materialism 
and pessimism. Conventions tether us to innu- 
merable hitching-posts, and we are held to a little 
exhausted range for sustenance. But on various 
occasions, and under certain conditions, glimpses 
of the supersensuous flash themselves upon us. 
The Bible often speaks of the awakening of the 
spiritual perception as the "opening of the eyes." 
Blindness is the common condition. When St. 
Paul first experienced a vivid impress of spiritual 
illumination, we read : " And straightway there 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 259 

fell from his eyes, as it were, scales and he re- 
ceived his sight." Not literal scales, but "as it 
were " scales. How expressive the Oriental si- 
militude ! 

God is Spirit (not "a spirit," as incorrectly ren- 
dered) and if man be made in his image and like- 
ness, he, in his real being must be spirit also. 
The seen body is man's instrument, but it is not 
man. Our souls breathe the spiritual atmosphere 
of God's immanence. His concrete activity is in 
all the higher processes of man's inner nature. 
There is a subtle but normal affinity between the 
divine and the human. Men have sought every- 
where outside to find God, vainly neglecting the 
spiritual corridors of their profounder conscious- 
ness. The divine life, love, beauty, and goodness 
are revealed to men through the recognition and 
activity of the same qualities in themselves. As 
man thinks God-like thoughts and comes into 
deific conjunction, he also gains an increasing 
command of spiritual powers and prerogatives. 

The testimony of the senses needs constant 
revision. In unnumbered ways the impressions 
gained from phenomena are deceptive. The move- 
ment of the sun and all the heavenly bodies seems 
plain, and as we look out of the window of the 



260 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

limited express, the landscape seems to be flying 
by. The distant object appears near, and our 
deeper reason is employed to make constant cor- 
rection. Modern science resolves matter into 
force, or vortex movements of the ether. Man's 
life is not in things, but in ideas, principles, truth, 
love, and other spiritual realities. The lack of 
faith still leads him mistakenly to think that he 
can "live by bread alone." 

It is not proposed in this connection to discuss 
the unseen, abstractly, but rather the practical 
outcome and utility of the activity of faith in con- 
nection with it. Faith makes it live. To the 
faithless the spiritual domain is but an empty 
void. Assurance peoples it with vital forces, 
actual as well as potential. What is negation to 
the natural eye is the most solid and real of all 
things. The common estimate is reversed, for 
the material becomes relatively immaterial. " Sal- 
vation by faith " not by dogma, ritual, thirty-nine 
articles, intercession or substitution, is the pro- 
found truth in all religions. Says Dr. James 
Freeman Clarke, in his review of St. Paul's ideas 
of "Justification by Faith": 

" Therefore in all ages and lands, men have sought 
to take hold of something higher than themselves — 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 261 

something supernatural, superhuman, unchanging. In 
this ever-rolling sea of time, they drop their anchor, 
hoping to strike something solid beneath which will 
hold them firm. It strikes a sacrament, and holds by 
that a little while; and then comes a storm, and it 
breaks away. It catches a saint, and holds by him ; 
to an inspired prophet and apostle, and holds by him. 
But these also give way, and at length it strikes the 
rock — the rocky basis of all belief — and takes hold 
of the Infinite Being himself. There it holds, and 
holds forever." 

The fundamental basis of all true religion is 
the assured contact of the human with the di- 
vine. The altar, the creed, and even the atonement 
should not come in between God and the soul. 
Even if there be truth and goodness in them, they 
are only incidents on the way. Faith is not inci- 
dental, but the vital unifying force. Whatever is 
interposed is not the goal, but only a resting-place 
in that direction. 

The Church of the Past, with all its complex 
machinery, has been afraid of faith, and this fear 
has not been limited to the Roman establishment. 
When Luther proclaimed, "Salvation by faith," 
the whole fabric of ecclesiasticism was shaken. 
He knew no indirection. The divine fire burned 
within his, soul. Sweeping aside intermediaries, 
he triumphantly sung : 



262 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

" A mighty fortress is our God, 
A bulwark never failing ; 
Our helper He amid the flood 
Of mortal ills prevailing." 

The religious systems, with rare exceptions, 
have inculcated fear of God, and have assured men 
that priests must intercede, and ordinances and 
sacrifices be observed, indicating that salvation 
must be at second hand. They have directed men 
to linger in the outer courts of the temple, while 
an official visit is made to the Holy of Holies. 
Peradventure God may listen through such an 
appeal. Jesus said: "Have faith in God." (Mark 
xi, 22) Then follows a statement of its privileges 
and possibilities. 

Religious intolerance has always waxed bitter 
toward those who cultivated the immediate pres- 
ence of God. From the time of the martyr, 
Stephen, who was so filled with the divine light 
that his face shone, down through the ages the 
direct communion of the soul with God has been 
discouraged and opposed. That beautiful and re- 
markable modern saint, Madam Guyon, was placed 
in solitary confinement in the Bastille, because the 
king and Church were afraid of faith. George 
Fox and Swedenborg, and a host of others pre- 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 263 

eminent for Godliness, have been accounted dan- 
gerous persons because Church and State were 
afraid of faith without restrictions. The Quietists 
of all ages, filled with the inner light, and distin- 
guished in outward life for unselfishness, love, and 
virtue constitute a long object-lesson of the hostil- 
ity of the ruling influences to the "divine ardor." 
History has shown that the direct communion 
of the human with the divine has had the effect to 
render external observances somewhat superfluous. 
The serene spirit, love, and beauty of character in 
the Quietist was a strong, though silent rebuke to 
the prevailing formalism of all ages. Simplicity 
and the inner light seem like heresy to ceremoni- 
alism. But there should be no indiscriminate 
censure of ceremonies and sacraments. If one is 
repelled from coming face to face with God, or is 
not drawn to do so, it is better to let one's priest 
go to the altar for him, than not to go at all. In 
fact, it may be freely admitted that for many 
grades of development, ritual and sacrament are 
useful and necessary steps. It may be well to 
find holiness, even in the fringe of a garment, for 
wherever found it means to the soul, a "feeling 
after God." Everything on the road upward may 
be consecrated but should not be idolized. 



264 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

There have been several distinct revivals of pure 
faith during the modern period, beside the many 
notable personal examples which have not been 
identified with any general movement. Since the 
great spiritual renaissance that was led by Luther, 
which ere long lost its purity and became weighted 
with dogma, faith at various times has reasserted 
itself in liberal measure. The Friends, or Quakers, 
as they are often called, headed by George Fox, 
developed an extensive inspirational movement in 
the latter part of the seventeenth century. Inner 
spiritual illumination, with an indifference toward 
outward ceremonial, and the exercise of direct com- 
munion — the human with the divine — were the 
prominent features of this devoted and non-re- 
sistent people. Like all irregulars, or non-con- 
formists of that period, they suffered persecution 
which they bore with a beautiful and uncomplain- 
ing spirit. Their history, from that time down to 
the present furnishes a shining example of the 
power of an inner faith, peace, and trust, and 
a corresponding expression of good works was not 
lacking. 

Another great outburst of faith, combined with 
little formalism, was that of the Methodist move- 
ment of the eighteenth century. In this revival, 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 265 

there was more outward demonstration. The 
leading spirits, the Wesleys and Whitefield were 
inspired with the " divine ardor " and soon had 
an extensive following in England and America. 
Methodism became a great power and has been an 
important element in shaping general religious 
thought. But theological differences gradually de- 
veloped, so that the original impulse lost its unity 
and simplicity, and several divisions or different 
kinds of Methodists were the result. 

The Unitarian movement, in its early history, 
especially as represented by Dr. Channing, was 
distinguished by a similar spirituality. It was a 
protest against and reaction from an overwrought 
and dogmatic theology. Doctrine had become 
hard and complicated, but Channing held that every 
man is a child of God and the subject of divine 
love. Again, salvation by faith, and the inner one- 
ness of the human and divine were the basis for a 
fresh inspiration. This spiritual renewal of the 
early part of the nineteenth century, not only at- 
tracted many adherents, but its spirit also pene- 
trated and permeated the existing systems of faith, 
and this subtle transforming influence outside of 
its own technical limits has continued down to the 
present time. While as a religious denomination, 



266 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

its numerical increase has been very moderate, its 
liberal spirit has been largely radiated in all direc- 
tions. As a coherent spiritual movement upon the 
basis of the Fatherhood of God and the Brother- 
hood of man, its diffusive tendency has been great. 
Some of Channing's sublime utterances are winged 
with rare inspirational truth. In speaking of the 
freedom of mind which comes through faith in the 
unseen, he says : 

" I call that mind free, which masters the senses, which 
protects itself against animal appetites, which contemns 
pleasure and pain in comparison with its own energy, 
which penetrates beneath the body and recognizes its 
own reality and greatness, which passes life, not in ask- 
ing what it shall eat or drink, but in hungering, thirst- 
ing, and seeking after righteousness. 

"I call that mind free which escapes the bondage of 
matter, which, instead of stopping at the material uni- 
verse and making it a prison wall, passes beyond it to 
its Author, and finds in the radiant signatures which it 
everywhere bears of the Infinite Spirit helps to its own 
spiritual enlargement. 

" I call that mind free which does not content itself 
with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to 
light whencesoever it may come, which receives new 
truth as an angel from heaven, which, whilst consulting 
others, inquires still more of the oracle within itself and 
uses instructions from abroad not to supersede but to 
quicken and exalt its own energies. 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 267 

" I call that mind free which is not passively framed 
by outward circumstances, which is not swept away 
by the torrent of events, which is not the creature 
of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its 
own improvement, and acts from an inward spring, 
from immutable principles which it has deliberately 
espoused." 

In the more recent history of religious lib- 
eralism, it does not seem quite certain that the 
high keynote which was sounded by the great 
Channing has been fully maintained. Good works 
and altruism are worthy of all praise, and have a 
most important place, but above them is needed a 
distinctive faith and spiritual consciousness. 

In any review of the successive high tides of a 
pure and simple faith in supersensuous Reality, 
there is one so unique that it deserves special at- 
tention. The rise of that idealistic philosophy, 
known as Transcendentalism, which came into wide 
notice about the middle of the last century was 
phenomenal. In the most profound sense it was 
both a religious and spiritual awakening. But any 
thorough appreciation of its true inwardness was 
exceedingly rare during its inception, and even to- 
day, its full recognition is very limited. Emerson 
was its leading prophet, and his office was as 
important and wel) fitted to his time and en- 



268 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

vironment, as was that of the great Hebrew 
seer, Isaiah. So completely was Transcendental- 
ism popularly misunderstood that it was accounted 
not only as irreligious but atheistic. To the reli- 
gious consciousness of the time, faith had become 
so wholly identified with dogma, ordinance, sacra- 
ment, and ecclesiasticism, that when shorn of 
these, and presented in its own simple garb, it was 
not recognized as faith at all. The little band of 
souls which formed the nucleus of the awakening 
were not only insignificant in numbers but rated 
as spiritual iconoclasts. The intuitions of Emer- 
son relating to the cosmic economy have, many of 
them, been confirmed by the researches of physical 
science, and his marvelous insight into the higher 
realm of mind and spirit, is also finding abundant 
proof in the psychical and spiritual experiences of 
highly developed souls. Transcendentalism laid the 
foundation for a practical and wholesome idealism, 
for a reconciliation between science and faith, 
for a conscious realism of the unseen, for a true 
synthesis — drawing together in fitting and har- 
monious proportion that which men had torn apart 
— for a beneficent, as well as a unified administra- 
tion of the moral order and for a universal divine 
revelation rather than one limited to book or 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 269 

system. From a vague, irreverent, and specula- 
tive philosopher, which was the average opinion of 
Emerson in his own time, and which perhaps is 
yet held by the majority, the future will reverence 
him as the great modern prophet of a natural and 
rounded faith, and the human channel for a true 
and progressive spiritual revelation. Original and 
intuitive souls often come in advance of their fit- 
ting evolutionary place. Only as subsequent gen- 
erations are able to approximate toward their point 
of view can they be interpreted. In its time 
Transcendentalism gave little outward sign of that 
inherent power which since has been unfolding. 
In its full breadth the movement could not have 
found an initiative earlier, for the world was inca- 
pable of its reception. Previous awakenings fitted 
to their own time, were able to strip off the ex- 
ternal layers of spiritual fruitage and get a near 
view of its richness, but this laid it bare to its 
heart and marrow. Much time must yet pass be- 
fore the Emersonian philosophy will receive due 
credit for its potential content of faith and spiri- 
tual progress. With all of its seeming mysticism 
and profundity, it tended to make life simple and 
childlike. It stimulated a natural and wholesome 
optimism and taught that existence, in itself, 



270 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

should be a joy and privilege. It showed that 
ideal man is the true expression of God. 

If faith be a perennial and not a capricious or 
spasmodic force, its practical advantages should be 
always available. If it be a law it is not subject 
to suspension or withdrawal. If it were ever 
potent in the assuagement of physical ills or men- 
tal distresses, it is no less so to-day. The faith- 
lessness and materialism of the modern world are 
especially evident in the absence of any general 
reliance upon its healing virtues. In this most 
vital department of human welfare, we choose to 
" walk by sight " almost exclusively. The striking 
affirmations which Jesus delivered concerning faith 
were mainly in reference to its application for hu- 
man recovery from disease and inharmony. In 
such beneficent work, he claimed no exclusive 
power. It was the privilege and prerogative of all 
"believers." "Greater works than I have done 
ye shall do." During the days of the Primitive 
Church, while a simple and strong faith prevailed 
its exercise in healing demonstration was expected 
and taken for granted. When that spiritual energy 
was eclipsed by dogma, theological speculation, and 
union with the State, it rapidly waned. Nothing 
would so revive confidence in its vital power in the 



FAITH AND THE UNSEEN 27 1 

eyes of the world, as a new demonstration of its 
visible and legitimate results. Already there are 
signs of a pentecostal outpouring, but unlike the 
former time it doubtless will come into realization 
gradually and without observation. This phase of 
the more practical application of the inner power 
will not be enlarged upon in this connection. It 
has had special and liberal attention in previous 
works issued by the author of this volume. 

A living faith is the crying necessity of to-day. 
Scholasticism and a highly wrought intellectual de- 
velopment cannot fill its place. We need an 
overwhelming consciousness of God, within and 
without, a feeling that he is revealed in everything, 
that he is the Force back of all other forces, and 
the Life of all other lives. The kingdom of God 
is within and to find it we must become like little 
children. The great exponents of faith in all ages 
have been those souls who lived in the universal 
strength and made their lives channels for the di- 
vine energy. 



XV 
LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

" 1 came that they may have life, and may have 
it abundantly." (John x, 10) The intimate re- 
lation of the divine to the human life is the most 
fundamental truth that can occupy our attention. 
How to secure a fuller measure of vitality has 
been and ever will be the universal quest and 
most absorbing problem. In dealing with the 
present plane of human activity, the various de- 
partments of physical science have their special 
fields of inquiry and points of view. They are 
related to life, but its primal source and constant 
influx are not of them. It comes "through the 
Son." But human belief has mainly regarded 
this higher life as an abstract proposition, and as 
having application more directly to the future 
state. But life, while mysterious, is the nearest 
and most common of all things. In reality, there 
is but One Life and its flowing is continuous. 

Swedenborg affirms that man is so made that he 

can apply to himself life from the Lord. In cer- 

272 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 273 

tain lofty conditions of spiritual consciousness, man 
may become highly charged with a divine vigor 
and he finds that it is possible to invite and culti- 
vate such experiences. God is our highest ideal 
of universal and all-abounding life, and through a 
feeling of oneness we may experience an influx of 
energy or divine incarnation. If, as Paul affirms, 
"In him we live and move and have our being," 
he must be our inmost substance, and our outward 
states should make a corresponding exhibit. It is 
of the highest importance that we constantly hold 
a living consciousness of this relationship. 

Our woes and disorders come from the feeling 
of separateness which we carelessly or uncon- 
sciously allow to prevail. While the soul is dis- 
tinct in its individuality and never loses its identity, 
it should cultivate a real sense of the divine 
presence and immanence. We are greatly in- 
clined to think of theology as religion, but they 
are far from being the same. Religion is a bind- 
ing to God, while theology is an opinion about 
him. Health is a symptom of full and exuberant 
life and its relation to religion is most intimate. 
There may be a certain animal vigor, but whole- 
ness, in its complete sense, involves a distinct 
spiritual element. While all living creatures derive 



274 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

their life from God, the human recognition of its 
incoming rounds out and increases the healthful- 
ness which is available to man. The Psalmist 
speaks of God, " Who is the health of my counte- 
nance." 

The reaching out of the soul toward God is true 
prayer. In the general sense prayer needs to be 
redefined. It is commonly regarded as petition, 
or asking for something which has been withheld 
and is at present lacking. But in its depth it is 
rather a recognition of what already is. St. Paul 
reminds us that " All things are yours." The 
divine exuberance is never suspended but our souls 
are unresponsive and not open to receive. Can 
one hunger when in the midst of nourishing and 
delicious viands ? It is quite possible if he does 
not make himself aware of their presence. With 
closed eyes he might starve. It is the fault of the 
condition within rather than that without. The 
opening of the soul upward and the exercise of 
faith are necessary to the appropriation of the 
good which is in readiness. 

Says James in his general epistle, " The prayer 
of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord 
shall raise him up." The work comes not merely 
through prayer but through "the prayer of faith/' 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 275 

Faith in anything involves conscious dependence 
upon it. Faith is not real faith until it is suffi- 
ciently living and tangible in the soul to be the 
main reliance. Material forces, as temporary and 
auxiliary may have their place, but faith will not 
yield its energy if made secondary. It belongs at 
the head. " Thou shalt have no other gods before 
me." This does not especially refer to graven 
images, but to a divided and doubtful allegiance. 
To make God secondary as a healing agency is an 
inversion of the divine order. In modern life, 
even among those who call themselves Christians, 
material science has largely usurped the first place. 
The living faith, as a restorative, which was nor- 
mal and practical in the days of the primitive 
church has been crowded out by lower agencies. 
By a long and almost unconscious process these 
have become "other gods." 

" He that hath the Son hath the life." (1st John 
v, 12) It seems plain that this means Sonship, a 
spiritual relation which is open to all, here and now. 
It is not limited to some future or distant realm of 
being. The incarnation of the spiritual Christ is 
the coming of the Son, and it brings life, or rather 
is life. The " coming " is the awakening from lat- 
ency of that which is already within. It is the 



276 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

uncovering of the divine image in which man was 
created, the quickening of his essential nature and 
potentiality. The biblical teaching of these vital 
principles is very emphatic and constantly repeated. 

It is admittedly unconventional to place the 
"prayer of faith" among the health-giving forces 
of the present time, but if the light of the Bible be 
shed upon the philosophy of life, there can be no 
uncertainty in the conclusion. In the event of 
some extraordinary public emergency, the prayer 
of petition is resorted to, but little is said of an 
abounding faith. If the restorative prayer of faith 
be divinely instituted, why should it not be regularly 
employed without reserving it for special occasions ? 
Physical functions derive their energy from the 
primal spiritual functions which correspond to and 
are back of them, and it is the power of faith which 
calls forth their activity. 

The goal of the higher development is the open- 
ing of the spiritual consciousness. This is the 
divine and true point of view rather than that of 
materiality. We need to be made free from the 
old limitations of sense and slavery to the flesh. 
The Apostolic gifts of the Spirit are offered with- 
out money and without price. As soft iron which 
in its natural state is inert and passive, may, through 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 277 

the influence of magnetic contact, be filled with a 
powerful quality which gives polarity to every 
molecule and makes the whole mass a positive 
force, so the physical organism may receive a 
spiritual potency and physical energy. Spirit is 
the primal substance because it is the foundation 
of the material organism and all outward expression. 
Briefly classified, we have three kinds of substance 
not separate but each within the other. The ma- 
terial body is interpenetrated by the psychic and 
both of these by the spiritual, which is primal and 
absolute. These are not apart by spatial condi- 
tions but by discrete degrees of refinement and 
subtle inner relation. Nothing is displaced, but 
each being more refined in vibration, dwells within 
the other. The realm of primal causation, being 
that which is most interior, should, as a duty and 
privilege, be consciously identified with the ego. 
"The kingdom of God is within you." To have 
an abiding-place within that realm puts us in direct 
contact with the Divine Mind. This is "the secret 
place of the Most High," and lies above the zone 
of change and uncertainty. This hidden place of 
rest and recuperation is no poetic extravagance, but 
a veritable reality, but it must be earnestly sought 
by those who would have it at command. Gross 



278 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

and solid physical forms cannot permeate each 
other, but these properties are no obstacle to the 
occupation of spiritual substance. In the Gospel 
of John, we are told that after the resurrection 
Jesus was able to pass through closed doors and 
to manifest himself in bodily form and appearance. 

The Christian Church, by a continued non-recog- 
nition of the life-giving power and psychic and 
spiritual potency of the gospel, in dealing with 
human disorders, has made an omission which has 
shorn it of its normal power and adaptability. The 
promised " signs " which were to follow those who 
believe have been wanting, and thus the conscious- 
ness of the multitude who live upon the lower plane 
— being unable to comprehend abstraction — behold 
no works which can appeal to them. The power of 
the gospel must reach men where they are and 
demonstration should meet them upon their own 
level. The mission of Jesus was to hand his con- 
vincing proof down to dull souls and to talk to them 
in a language which they could understand. 

The unusual works accomplished by the Master, 
which are called miracles, have been looked upon 
as special and not in accord with the inherent 
nature of things. Having been accounted as vio- 
lations or suspensions of the established order, their 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 279 

practice and perpetuation have not been expected. 
In spiritual attainment men do not find what they 
have, in advance, decided to be impossible. Hu- 
manity has been reckoned as fallen and unspiritual 
and therefore has not claimed spiritual Sonship 
which Jesus not only demonstrated but declared 
belonged to all. The truth has seemed too good 
to be worthy of belief, and this has put a living 
faith out of the question. In effect men have 
regarded the world as governed by caprice instead 
of beneficent law. 

The "wonderful works" recorded in the gospel 
narratives are variously interpreted. The sceptic 
and materialist express absolute unbelief in their 
historical accuracy. Others who claim to believe, 
accept them as facts, but think them exceptional 
and beyond the pale of orderly procedure and 
given only as special " signs " to prove the deity of 
Jesus. This position ignores the fact that they 
were common in the primitive church and not con- 
fined to the personality, or even the time of the 
Master. The third and true exposition of the 
works is, that while exceptional in degree, they 
form a vital part of the divine human plan, are 
normal, and under like favoring conditions and de- 
velopment should be duplicated in every age. In 



280 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

other words, they form a Christian ideal and are 
neither disorderly nor strange. Can any deep 
thinker, having in view the history of mankind, 
reasonably affirm that they are abnormal ? How 
can the scientist be dogmatically opposed to the 
spiritual philosophy of the source and influx of 
life when with his own chosen means of investiga- 
tion it wholly eludes him ? 

The logic of all philosophy and analogy shows 
that life and mind build up the physical organism 
and are not the property or result of it. These 
invisible and primal forces lay hold of suitable, 
elemental material, and erect it into corresponding 
visible articulation. Not technical chemistry, but 
the chemistry of life, with wonderful skill selects 
and transmutes the proper materials for its own 
expressive uses. It unifies and organizes them, 
and thereby makes outwardly manifest its own 
plane and nature. 

It is a universal law that life of every grade 
seeks embodiment. It is the executive of its 
material constituents, and should reign over them. 
But from the lack of spiritual assertiveness, and a 
belief in his own inherent weakness, man's grasp 
upon the embodiment which should serve him be- 
comes weak and uncertain. The dynamic of faith 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 281 

is lacking and hence cohesive energy is feeble. 
Disintegration is thereby invited, and, in conse- 
quence, life vacates and seeks more suitable con- 
ditions. 

Life more abundant is the world's need and 
should be its ideal. Except in a subordinate and 
temporary way it does not derive its sustenance 
from matter but its real nourishment is from 
above. It is entirely reasonable to suppose that 
as the spiritual consciousness and deeper insight 
which were possessed by the Prophet of Nazareth 
are developed by his followers, in any age, they, 
through orderly divine methods, will "do the 
works." But this supremacy over lower things 
will come only as a gradual and sane realization. 
It is potential and yet mainly latent. " He that 
believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do 
also." Nothing could be more positive and no 
limitation is implied. His message to the world 
was not some system of theology, standard of 
ethics, or outward restriction, but, more life. 
Vigorous life must include love, and love super- 
sedes the ceremonial law. The time is at hand 
when the Christ which was manifested through 
Jesus must have wide and general incarnation. 

If conversion, instead of being limited to ab- 



282 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

stract belief and an assent to certain theological 
doctrine, meant new life and a growing release 
from fleshly bondage and disorder, how the world 
would seek it and desire its fruits ! There would 
be an appeal which every man could understand, 
and it would have overwhelming attraction. This 
is his lawful inheritance. 

That various states of mind directly affect the 
body no one will deny. This principle once ad- 
mitted, there remains only a question of our pos- 
sible control of these states, and an understanding 
of how they may be invoked and brought into use. 
The most intense mental action and shaping comes 
through faith and the imagination. These are the 
divinest and most potent elements in the soul. 
True, the creative imaging faculty is capable of 
perversion, but the same is true of every normal 
power. Forces, of whatever nature, must be 
turned in the right direction. Reverse the most 
useful machine or invention and it becomes de- 
structive. Its goodness is turned to evil. The 
character of the product of the imagination de- 
termines the heavenly or hellish quality of man's 
interior states. 

It may be objected that faith cannot be invoked 
on demand, and that belief requires evidence for 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 283 

a foundation. But faith, when cultivated, becomes 
a veritable kind of knowledge. If it be lacking 
in external conclusiveness, it awakens an internal 
proof which is even more satisfactory. Its posi- 
tive results furnish their own certitude and en- 
dorsement. Faith is the saving power of God in 
proportion as it is relied upon, for it brings the 
soul into vital contact with the centre and source 
of all life. Reason and logic are well in their own 
province, but there is a higher source of knowing. 
Inward seeing awakens a degree of energy which 
no outside influence can equal. If a perverted 
imagination, or evil thinking can cause disorderly 
conditions, it logically follows that, rightly used, 
they may heal and restore. The soul is con- 
stantly shaping and conveying its quality to the 
seen organism. "Thy faith hath made thee 
whole," expresses a law which is as reliable as 
any principle in chemistry or physics. With the 
decline of faith the religious life has largely lost 
its vital element. The intellectual absorption of 
modern life has usurped the rightful authority 
of the intuitive or spiritual perception, and it in- 
sists upon its supremacy. 

In the practice of the Master the conversion of 
the soul and the healing of physical disorder were 



284 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

but the internal and external sides of the same 
process. The bodily expression was reformed 
through the newness of mind, as a perfectly natu- 
ral result. The principle is the same as when joy 
or fear, exaltation or guilt, manifest themselves in 
facial appearance. 

The restorative energy in nature which we 
always rely upon is a part of the universal divine 
beneficence and we can accelerate and assist its 
healing power by thinking and affirming in har- 
mony with it. Such is divine and human coopera- 
tion, and God's part is always in readiness, being 
already complete. It is possible for thought 
either to promote or obstruct that which we wish 
to make manifest. God works not from the out- 
side but from within and this unceasingly. Be- 
cause he dwells in the soul it is easy to find him 
and come into conscious relation and communion. 
Neither ordinance, ritual, nor petition can bring 
him " down " because he is already here. 

What we call pain and disease are really the 
friction which comes from the recuperative energy 
striving to correct our mistakes and straighten our 
crookedness. A recognition of their true mission, 
with a non-resistant attitude, mitigates their dis- 
comfort and hastens relief. Though so univer- 



LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 285 

sally misapprehended, pain is not an enemy sent 
to distress us but an angel of mercy in disguise. 
We furnish it with its armament by our belief of 
its hostility. "As a man thinketh in his heart 
so is he." That feverish condition which we call 
disease is really the hurried effort of the divine 
inner forces to expel obstructions and purify " the 
temple of the Holy Ghost." God is ever working 
to turn us into the right path, both by its attrac- 
tiveness and in a negative way by proving to us 
the bitterness of the one which is wrong. 

The Dispensation of the Spirit comes on apace. 
We are learning that there is a divine side to man 
which opens into the unfathomable deeps of God's 
nature. The increasing higher consciousness 
which forms the true basis of psychic and physi- 
cal soundness is also manifesting itself in the 
broadening of theological systems and in the spiri- 
tualizing of science itself. Men are " feeling after 
God " and finding more life. Divinity and human- 
ity shade into each other and a realization of this 
coalescence furnishes a balm for all the woes of 
mankind. 



XVI 

THE FUTURE LIFE 

The teaching of the Bible regarding the future 
life and its conditions is veiled, and in the Old 
Testament, especially, there is little recognition of 
immortality. There is more or less implication in 
that direction, but a seeming dearth of positive 
or definite statement. Even in the New Testa- 
ment, outside of the teaching of Paul — who is 
the leading theologian of the Bible — allusions to 
the next plane of existence are few and generally 
mystical in form. Considering the importance of 
the subject and its transcendent interest to man- 
kind, we naturally might expect that eschatology 
or the doctrine of " the last things," would have 
a more prominent place in Holy Writ. 

Two inferences may be drawn from the apparent 
lack of biblical emphasis upon ultimate and eter- 
nal verities. The first, that for wise reasons there 
is a curtain, somewhat impenetrable, hung between 
the two planes of expression, and the second, that 

the higher life is not another, or a different state 
286 



THE FUTURE LIFE 287 

of being, but simply a continuance — in fact, that 
there is but one life. The arbitrary distinction 
which is so common is misleading, for it is not life 
but its relations and methods which change. 

Without dogmatizing upon the conditions which 
follow the event called death, we have sufficient 
light upon this great problem, both from the Bible 
and through spiritual perception for all practical 
purposes. It is reasonable to conclude that as we 
are constituted, some mystery regarding the last 
things is best. Every revelation comes to us 
when it is matured, or rather when we are ripened 
for the same, and never before. We crave posi- 
tive evidence, but perhaps have not considered all 
the factors which are involved. There is ever a 
beyond of the indefinable to which the human 
mind is reaching forth, and it is not for us to know 
it all. We may well reserve a little room for 
future revelations of truth. Faith and hope are 
fundamental faculties in human consciousness, and 
they require a field for exercise. Were we able 
fully to penetrate the future, even of the present 
life, there would be a loss of rich anticipation, no 
place for "walking by faith," and no field for 
fresh and buoyant expansion. We have an equip- 
ment for a mystical looking forward and upward, 



288 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

and it must be used, otherwise atrophy will result. 
Without denying — in fact accepting the possibil- 
ity and even utility of communications across the 
line — there is still enough that is incomprehen- 
sible to call out the delightful prophetic activities 
and visions of the soul. Even if we accept the 
clearest and most definite testimonies which are 
wafted back to us from those who have laid aside 
the visible form, there is yet an important resi- 
duum of mystery. Our sensuous and even our 
intellectual equipment does not serve us in that 
direction, and it is not intended that it should. 
What would become of all the grand ideals, hopes, 
and aspirations which now attract us forward if we 
could see clearly in advance ? Expansion requires 
room ahead. Life, love, truth, and progress are 
certain, because they are unending in their nature. 
These we know positively because we have their 
samples within, while the realm of mystery, both 
here and hereafter, is in environment and relation. 
Life, now and forever, is an individuated and 
enduring stream of soul force — a microcosmic 
current of the divine energy in a local channel. 
Because it is spiritual it is immortal. Upon the 
present plane of existence it takes hold of, and 
objectifies some passive material which we call 



THE FUTURE LIFE 289 

matter. The real or spiritual self builds up a vis- 
ible organism and takes it into temporary partner- 
ship to register and interpret itself outwardly. 
But even matter is indestructible. Water may be 
transformed into ice or steam without coming to 
an end, or losing any of its potential energy. It 
has a kind of life, but how much higher and more 
coherent is that of the soul ! The conservation of 
energy, scientifically established in the physical 
realm, has its correspondence in the zone above. 
Form and expression change, but energy, of what- 
ever quality, never ceases. The soul, here and 
hereafter, acts upon related environment and also 
receives orderly reaction from the same. 

Death is the laying down of an instrument 
which is no longer fitted for, or responsive to soul 
growth. It is emergence from an "outgrown 
shell." To be dead is good if it be death in the 
right direction. It is the leaving behind of that 
which is no longer useful. Death to sin is life to 
righteousness. Such is the real "resurrection," 
rather than any collecting of dust which once 
served as a temporary costume or tenement. Few 
now hold to the dogma of a material reconstruc- 
tion of dust, and it is plain that it is not necessary 
to identity. The creeds, in the letter, seem to 



290 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

teach it, but their unresponsiveness to present 
actual belief shows how fossilized they have be- 
come. 

But while death in the usual sense is only an 
event in life, we may naturally ask, is physical dis- 
solution — as a method of advancement — to be 
ultimately outgrown, and is it in some sense a fail- 
ure of the normal spiritual ideal ? Is that unwel- 
come process forever to remain as the only gate- 
way between the present expression and that which 
is higher and more refined ? Of what will consist 
the vanquishment of "the last enemy" to which 
Paul makes repeated reference ? It is now co- 
ercive, and to common consciousness abrupt and 
unlovely in character. This question does not 
directly bear upon immortality, but though sec- 
ondary is of deep interest. Toward what should 
we aim, and what will be the normal and ideal 
transition ? The present crude embodiment is not 
fitted for a spiritual inheritance. Will it forever 
continue to be necessary to bury it out of sight, 
" dust to dust," or is there to come a time when a 
gradual spiritualization and refinement will leave 
no impurity to deposit ? Immortality in the crude 
fabric of the present is impossible, while continu- 
ance in a more refined organism would at least fill 



THE FUTURE LIFE 29 1 

the assumption of the defeat of death, as it is now- 
known. Will the process of the higher evolution 
finally bring the time for the race when there will 
be nothing earthy to give back ? Does the Bible, 
the Book of types and ideals, throw any light upon 
this problem ? If the experiences of Enoch and 
Elijah have valid typical significance, we must con- 
clude that they are in accord with a higher law, to 
which gradual conformity will be a human achieve- 
ment. Paul affirms (Hebrews xi, 5) that, "By 
faith Enoch was translated that he should not see 
death ; and he was not found, because God trans- 
lated him." Is there any other way in which 
death, defined as an event, can be "swallowed up 
in victory" ? Modern interpretation shows that 
nothing happens by chance or is arbitrary, so that 
if there be validity in the accounts of Enoch and 
Elijah, it logically follows that they were advanced 
and ripened types of a spiritual quickening which 
is normal and potentially available. A completed 
type, as an ideal, may greatly anticipate racial 
human achievement and not be contrary to evolu- 
tionary precedent. What a complete triumph over 
" the king of terrors " there would be in a recogni- 
tion of the normality and possibility of a beautiful 
and orderly translation as the human goal. Such 



292 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

a vision of the coming time would inspire a new 
faith in the divinity of man. 

But turning to death as now defined and as pre- 
sented in the Bible, aside from the exceptions 
before noted, the dissolution of the tie between the 
soul and its material servant is beautifully likened 
by Paul to the sowing of seed. "It is sown a 
natural (earthy) body and raised a spiritual body." 
A spiritual body must be an organism, a real 
unitary entity with members which are fitted to its 
new relations and surroundings. We are not to 
be disembodied spirits, but "clothed upon." Such 
an organic being involves individuality, conscious- 
ness, and even definite place. That which is 
"dead" — left behind — enters into new relations 
upon its own plane, while the soul or spiritual body 
which has dwelt within it steps forth untrammeled. 
The man himself is intact. As the infant upon its 
entrance into the outward world has lungs already 
prepared to inhale the atmosphere of its new realm, 
so the developed man comes into the spiritual en- 
vironment with a ready adjustment. Among all 
the grades of being, from the monad, upward, the 
moral order never presents any unfledged candidate 
for advancement. Under the cover of the old, his 
new equipment in some measure has been provided. 



THE FUTURE LIFE 293 

Paul reminds us that the seed which is cast in- 
to the ground must die — be left behind — before 
the new and higher order can come into expres- 
sion. The simile is a beautiful and expressive 
one. Ripeness and seeming decay in the lower 
is followed by newness in the higher. By immu- 
table law the oak comes from the acorn, and can 
the higher steps of life be any less certain of 
succession and orderly identity ? 

But the "resurrection" in a vital sense, quite 
independent of the event of physical dissolution, is 
an advancement of the soul to a higher life and 
consciousness. It is taking place every day, in 
and all about us. The immaterial and immortal 
forward trend is not conditioned upon material 
events or conditions. Life ! Whether here or 
hereafter ; how much its expansion includes and 
what wonders are to be unwrapped and made 
manifest ! Even in the lowest orders, no chemis- 
try can discover its secret. Think what it means 
to have a body which is " incorruptible " ! No 
weakness, decay, disease, or physical limitation. 
Primarily, it is not in the province of the intellect 
to prove validity of a conscious existence after 
death. It is beyond its latitude and in deep 
soundings its testing line is too short. Our ears 



294 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

are receptive to atmospheric vibrations and our 
eyes to those that are etheric, which we call light. 
Everything has its peculiar office and one faculty 
does not perform the function of another. But 
while the cognizance of the future is not of the 
intellectual order, there are certain logical impli- 
cations which are conclusive. 

Take the " law of supply and demand," and 
consider its universality. Though mainly recog- 
nized in its material application its higher range 
will be evident. The paramount wonder and glory 
of the divine order is its unity and interrelation. 
Nothing is superfluous and nothing can be spared. 
Everything is related to everything else. As 
Emerson aptly says : 

" All are needed by each one ; 
Nothing is fair or good alone." 

Supply and demand are the positive and nega- 
tive poles of being, and each is a sure prophecy of 
the other. In vain do we look for either in any 
realm of matter or mind without a conscious recog- 
nition of its counterpart. Each demands satis- 
faction in the other and there is a reaching out 
until it is gained. The demand for continued ex- 
istence in the human soul is so nearly universal 



THE FUTURE LIFE 295 

that it must be regarded as normal and implanted. 
Design, compensation, balance, and fitness being 
found everywhere, they must be profoundly basic 
in the nature of things. If the soul itself were a 
unique exception to this natural law, and if it in- 
herently included a positive desire for what is not 
to be, we might well conclude that all analogy is 
valueless, and that the moral order is planned to 
deceive. Where in the whole cosmos can an ex- 
ception to the law be found? A well formed 
wrist without a hand, an eye with nothing outside 
to see, and an ear-drum especially designed for 
vibrations when there were no vibrations, would be 
no more irrational than that a soul should come to 
an end. Did one ever find a leaf and have any 
doubt about the existence of a tree ? 

Man in his very constitution is designed to re- 
ceive revelations of truth, and revelations are there- 
fore scientific in a strict sense. In proportion as 
the human mind is held open to the divine Spirit 
of Truth a positive assurance of the future is de- 
veloped. It unfolds like a plant in the sunshine. 
If we are offshoots of the infinite intelligence — 
children of God — we must be spirit, and spirit is 
immortal. Man is made of God-stuff. A constant 
oneness with the Universal furnishes a certificate 



296 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

that man, in his real being, is no less permanent 
than the Divine Being. " Be ye therefore perfect 
even as your Father in heaven is perfect." That 
which is perfect cannot be subject to loss or decay. 
Man's divinity is a guarantee of his persistence and 
duration, and his divinity comes as a progressive 
revelation of himself to himself. 

The evidence of the future life already adduced 
makes it practically unnecessary to dwell at any 
length upon the actual testimony which comes 
from friends in the higher life. Under certain 
favorable conditions those who have left us behind 
manifest themselves and make communications. 
The realization of this fact is no longer limited to 
those who technically call themselves "spiritual- 
ists," or to people who from motives of curiosity 
merely seek the phenomenal for its own sake. 
Among those who are definitely known as spiri- 
tualists, there are many who are as reputable, con- 
scientious, and intelligent as any members of the 
community, and many of them use their best 
efforts to root out the fraud and charlatanism 
which is known to masquerade under their general 
name. Some of the most careful and conservative 
scientists of the present era, whose names are 
known and honored throughout the civilized world, 



THE FUTURE LIFE 297 

unhesitatingly affirm the validity of intelligible 
messages from the Beyond. While the writer has 
made but little personal concrete investigation, he 
regards the fact of the passage of thought and 
recognition between the two planes of expression 
as well and forever established. The time has 
passed when any one who has regard for truth can 
find any excuse for dogmatic denial which when 
made is usually without any attempt at honest in- 
vestigation. While the mystery may not be fully 
cleared up until there is a higher spiritual level, 
and while the veil may not be removed, it will 
probably grow thinner. If we live in a social uni- 
verse, and if there is a certainty of love and in- 
terest, what more natural than the desire on each 
side of the line for some real sign or message from 
the other ? If our dear friends cross the Atlantic 
do we not rightly seek, and do they not desire to 
send us tidings of their welfare and progress ? It 
is our materialism and abnormal ideas of the tran- 
sition which has put the natural counterparts wide 
asunder. Such a consciousness regarding the 
higher sphere does not comport with the spirit of 
an enlightened Christianity or a living faith and 
trust. When we "lose friends," let us cultivate 
the feeling that they are not far away, lost to 



298 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

former ties, interests, and friendly oneness, but, 
though invisible to the dull organs of sense, are 
right in our midst as they are drawn or can render 
service. In conventional "spiritualism," there is 
much that is unspiritual, spectacular, and not 
genuine. This is admitted by its best exponents. 
But can we find any philosophy or even religion 
that is free from human flaw ? Crossing the line 
makes no one truly spiritual. Character and inner 
unfoldment is not a matter of place or condition. 
The laws through which tidings from beyond are 
practicable are yet but vaguely understood. In 
general, the instrument through which they are 
conveyed is liable to give some local coloring 
which may modify their integrity. Certain sub- 
jective conditions, methods, and attunement are 
necessary to successful communication. In the 
lower range of the telephone or wireless telegraphy 
the utmost delicacy of adjustment to their own 
laws is indispensable, and nothing less could be 
expected on the psychic and spiritual levels. 

Even on the other side, there is an earthly zone 
of ignorance, crudeness, and darkness which is 
wrapped about the mundane consciousness. This 
dense obstruction prevents a free and ready inter- 
change across the line between the higher and 



THE FUTURE LIFE 299 

purer souls in either direction. The dark belt 
includes the abuses and the negative side of what, 
rightly used, would be normal and wholesome. 
These lower states are denominated in the Bible 
as witchcraft, familiar spirits, evil possession, and 
other abnormal conditions which include the activi- 
ties of low and undeveloped "spirits in prison." 
The unclean and devilish elements are over there 
as well as here, and they are drawn to mingle with 
and influence their kind who are still in the flesh. 
There is a realm of the occult which is unspiritual 
and which should be avoided. The Bible is 
crowded with references to spiritual intelligences 
of widely diverse character. There are many 
terms employed which to us have become almost 
meaningless, but they all have spiritual signifi- 
cance. We read of angels, archangels, seraphs, 
messengers, the heavenly host, heaven opened, 
visions and trances, as signifying exalted intelli- 
gences, experiences and states of being. Perhaps 
an equal number of terms are used to define low 
and contrasted conditions. The Bible is not 
honored by regarding either as mythical or insigni- 
ficant. By immutable law every order of charac- 
ter and consciousness is attracted to its "own 
place," Saint John, "the divine," in that highly 



300 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

symbolic Book of Revelation, names certain moral 
qualities which persist and these are evidently 
typical of all. He that is "unrighteous," "filthy," 
" righteous," or "holy," let him be so " still." It 
is also added that reward is rendered to each man 
"according as his work is." This does not indi- 
cate that there is to be no progress, but rather 
that it is to be wrought out through great effort. 

The degree of salvation to which we are heirs 
corresponds with the ideals of the heart. Even if 
these are high, we are incapable, except in some 
measure through the eye of faith, of understand- 
ing the unseen world. But our imagination is a 
divine faculty of creative power and it may be 
profitable at times to free it in range, send it 
aloft, and through it to cultivate our spiritual dis- 
cernment. Paul declares that, "Eye hath not 
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
heart of man the things which God hath prepared 
for them that love him." Saint John also deline- 
ates the splendors of the heavenly state to the 
extent of the power of human imagery. Can we 
catch a glimpse of what an ideal salvation may be ? 
What wonders of beauty and harmony, and how 
glorious the celestial sunshine ! What a warm 
unison of love thrills through reunited souls ! 



THE FUTURE LIFE 301 

What restoration and compensation ! What an 
introduction to grand spiritual activities and un- 
expected ministries of loving service ! What far- 
reaching vistas and opportunities for educational 
advancement. How many mysteries solved and 
anxious fears allayed! How many new faculties 
and powers unfolded and exercised ! What an 
increase of knowledge and breadth of view ! What 
journeys of exploration, unhindered by the bounda- 
ries of time and space! What eons of spiritual 
progression stretch on and upward toward the ulti- 
mate goal and Ideal ! 



XVII 

THE GLORY OF THE COMMON- 
PLACE 

'°Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, 
And robes the mountain in its azure hue." 

If this familiar sentiment be true of the things 
of sense, it is still more marked in the realities of 
the higher realm. The human mind is prone to 
rear its altars and erect its sanctities in the far- 
away and unknown. The imagination takes wings 
and discovers the Golden Age in the hazy mist 
of the remote past. The inauguration of the 
heavenly harmony is pushed forward beyond the 
confines of a chasm of interminable ages. What 
is near-by is rated as common and prosaic. It 
lacks the charmed atmosphere with which the soul 
invests its distant fancies and sacred visions. 

It is a strange mistake to heap up devotion upon 
the long-ago, to the neglect of the realization of 
the divine immanence of to-day. Historic shrines, 
holy relics, and sacred places absorb the interest 

and draw out the soul. Instead of emulating the 

302 



THE GLORY OF THE COMMONPLACE 303 

life and spirit of the old-time prophets, we build 
tombs for them and consecrate their remains. 
Tradition would restore old walls which have 
served their purpose. What an object lesson of 
the possible furore of this spirit is furnished by 
the history of the crusades ! An idolatrous hom- 
age paid to material sacred remnants swept over 
Europe in great psychological waves. It was a 
contagion which demonstrated the force of the 
far-away. Palestine was sacred soil, and the Holy 
Sepulchre and Cave of the Nativity were priceless 
jewels to be snatched from the grasp of the infidel 
at any sacrifice of blood and treasure. Untold 
thousands of young lives were wasted for this pur- 
pose by endless marches, famine, and war. All 
this received the high sanction of popes and mon- 
archs, and was carried on under the banner of the 
Cross of the Prince of Peace. The colossal trag- 
edies of the " Children's Crusades " and of con- 
stant disasters were not sufficient to cool the blind 
zeal which for a considerable part of the eleventh, 
twelfth, and thirteenth centuries sapped the life- 
blood of Christian Europe. What horrors have 
been perpetrated in the name of religion ! 

Traditional sanctity is so easy and sentimental 
that we may draw an outline as large as we will, 



304 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

and fill it in, and yield it homage. But that pro- 
phetic and poetic spirit which is unhampered by 
land-marks finds truth in the eternal Now, inde- 
pendent of time and space. The spiritual world 
is located neither in the dim past nor the remote 
future, but we are living in it to-day, even though 
unconsciously. We only lack awareness of the 
great reality. 

Turning to the natural world for correspon- 
dence and illustration, if we look deeply we are 
overwhelmed by the wonders of that which is in 
most immediate proximity. Modern science af- 
firms that the laws and activities of the cosmos 
and solar system are duplicated not only in man 
— the microcosm — but in the atom. The universe 
without, is no more complicated or marvelous, 
than the universe within. The creative order 
repeats itself through all relativities and corre- 
spondences. Every seed and bulb which we 
brush aside in our pathway carries within it the 
implied promise of a general resurrection. Every 
flower or twig which we count as a trifle is an 
orderly expression of the Universal Life. " Canst 
thou by searching find out God ? " Not mainly by 
a study of that which is imposing and afar-off, but 
more by what is near and in thyself. We extol 



THE GLORY OF THE COMMONPLACE 30$ 

the great, but the infinitesimal has yet to receive 
appreciation. An eminent scientist has recently 
made the startling suggestion that below us in the 
scale of being there may exist molecular universes 
with intelligences and even civilizations. Every 
atom and molecule has its own peculiar vibration 
and rhythm, and thus joins in the universal anthem 
of praise to its Maker. 

Was God nearer to the world in the days of the 
patriarchs and prophets than he is to-day ? Is he 
not as ready to lead our nation as he was the 
Hebrew people? Why do men hunt for him in 
the darkness and distance rather than in the light, 
and near-by ? Special devotion to the sanctities of 
the dead past, through mistaken contrast, takes 
from the present a large part of its value and 
beauty. Whittier voices the spiritual ideal : 

" That all of good the past hath had 
Remains to make our own time glad, 
Our common daily life divine, 
And every land a Palestine. 

" Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
For olden time and holier shore. 
God's love and blessing, then and there, 
Are now and here and everywhere," 



306 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

What is near-by and now, includes all the 
potentiality and inspiration of the past and future. 
"Day unto day uttereth speech," if we will but 
listen. "The flower in the crannied wall" is as 
marvelous as the milky way. The mountain 
shrinks in importance beside the mind which can 
measure and weigh it and divine its laws. If the 
image of God is inscribed in every soul, must we 
necessarily gaze for it through a long vacancy of 
time and space ? " The hour cometh, when neither 
in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye wor- 
ship the Father. . . . God is a Spirit : and they 
that worship him must worship in spirit and 
truth." 



XVIII 
THE FORWARD MARCH 

" And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest 
thou unto me ? speak unto the children of Israel, that 
they go forward." 

It is against the deepest law of our nature that 
we ever should be at rest. There never has been, 
nor ever will be a time in the history of the race 
when the onward impulse of life will finally relapse 
into quiescence. Man is made to march on. Truth 
is marching on, and in a deep sense, God is march- 
ing on. We arrive at some place where " every 
prospect pleases " and think we will rest, but hardly 
pitch our tent before we get the order to strike 
camp and go forward. 

But not all that seems new is a part of real pro- 
gress. There is a well-made highway upon which 
we may safely advance, but many "reformers" 
wish to take some short cut and essay to cheat 
evolution through a panacea of their own devising. 
One would introduce, on demand, a new social or- 
der or inaugurate through legislative contrivance 
3°7 



308 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

some economic revolution. Only do this, or that, 
and then sit down and rest. The world teems with 
those experimenters who believe that man can be 
made over from the outside. Some who count 
themselves fervent in Christian faith often reverse 
the processes which Jesus practiced, and arbitrarily 
set up an artificial standard or dogma in his name. 
They inquire, " exactly what would he do in this 
or that material position in modern life?" and then 
proceed to make a very positive answer. Like some 
of his zealous followers of old, they would take him 
by force and proclaim him king. When that spirit 
prevailed, he withdrew, usually to some desert- 
place for retirement. 

While it is of profound importance to apply the 
Christ spirit in daily life, it savors of cant to affirm 
with certainty just what Jesus would do in this 
position or that. His real power resides in the 
wonderful simplicity of his life. The necessity for 
outward reforms, and the overthrow of collective 
evils in entrenched positions was never greater than 
in his day. But in recognition of the principle 
that they are results rather than causes, he made 
no direct attack upon them. It was his to "lay 
the axe at the root of the tree," to get back of 
superficial expressions and delve in the deeper 



THE FORWARD MARCH 309 

realm of the hidden source. He dealt not directly 
with politics, Roman rule, or imperfect institutions, 
but only with the springs of action. Conduct is 
but the articulation of thought and character and 
can be sweetened and purified only at the fountain 
head. To build a dam in the bed of a flowing 
stream a little higher in order to stop its flow is 
futile. It soon runs over with the same vigor as 
before. To many reformers who engage themselves 
upon the surface of life, the work of Jesus, were it 
repeated to-day, would seem to have little practi- 
cality. True progress is not superficial and con- 
fined to the betterment of man upon the material 
plane, but is rather new inward life. "The kingdom 
of God cometh not with observation." 

The human soul is making greater forward 
progress than ever before because it is profoundly 
convinced that God is working through it instead 
of altogether outside. The thought which we are 
leaving behind is that God approached man, while 
the new consciousness is God at the centre. 
"Behold I make all things new." The Psalms 
are the poetic and inspirational expression of re- 
ligious feeling at the time of David. But to the 
man of to-day, the truth which is enshrined in 
psalmody should mean a great deal more. With 



3IO LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

our modern appreciation of God in the cosmos, 
and his fuller revelation in the soul, and in events, 
every sublime recognition should be broader and 
deeper. 

We need not attack the more restricted faiths 
of the past. They have served their purpose and 
fitted their own time and generation. They 
simply recede as we press forward and behold a 
vaster horizon and more perfect harmony. Let us 
think of the universal trend as onward, and for- 
ever onward. It may aid our concept to image 
the movement in terms of space. Life is not 
merely continued existence but a constant renew- 
ing and creating. There is the opening of new 
senses and a clearer and farther view through 
new vistas. We move forward, as does also the 
ground upon which we stand. While the soul is 
unfolding, everything outside is engaged in the 
same process. If youth in years cannot return, 
let us cling to its spirit, affirm its cheer, and take 
optimism for our guest. It is the puny and tem- 
porary detail of life that holds us down and back. 
We must gather new and grander thoughts and 
clothe ourselves with them as with a garment. 

The supreme fact of living is change. Fixed- 
ness, and even consistency, in the usual sense, 



THE FORWARD MARCH ; 311 

stifles the soul. The Spirit is ever making new 
revelations and suggestions to the individual who 
is receptive. "And what I say unto you I say 
unto all, Watch." Fidelity to present truth and 
the vision of to-day, lays the foundation for the 
larger outlook of to-morrow. Our starting-point 
is the place where our predecessors left off. We 
plant our feet upon the terrace built by their 
utmost reach. If our new earth be larger than 
our old, the new heaven must correspondingly 
expand. 

The true index of any stage of growth is its 
ideal of God. Says Dr. McConnell in his very 
valuable book, "Christ," regarding past concepts 
of God : 

"He issued ukases ; he promulgated laws ; he directed 
events, and summoned offenders to be dealt with as 
rebels ; he was above all responsibility ; he was, in a 
word, the quintessence of Absolutism throned at the 
center of the universe. . . . This conception of God 
satisfied. It fitted and was correlated with the actual 
life and thought of the people who ' bowed the knee ' 
before him. Their political life was its reflection ; 
their social life was organized from the bottom up on 
the monarchical principle. At its summit was the 
King, and above him was the King of Kings. It is 
more than merely interesting to note the extent to 
which the language of religion is to this day colored by 
the imagery of political absolutism." 



312 LIFE MORE ABUNDANT 

The great forward trend, to many, looks like an 
uncertain drifting, a recession from old and well- 
established landmarks. Has truth solid outlines, 
and if so how can we distinguish them from the 
dissolving objects which are moving about us ? 
" Watchman, what of the night ? " Do the flashes 
of light and shade presage a new and brighter 
day ? Yes ! The great drift is taking us toward 
the morning. A grand highway is being cast up 
and levelled. In the midst of all the seeming 
chaos, not a verity is destroyed and not a vital 
principle is fading. It is only the morbid growths 
which are sloughing off. The Bible itself is not 
being lost but saved. Saved to reason, to true 
philosophy, and pure spiritual science ! Saved to 
knowledge, logic, and the higher interpretation ! 
Lost to ignorance, superstition, and bigotry ! Per- 
chance the warped vision of the atheist or mate- 
rialist may make it seem to him that the great drift 
is toward his own position. This is because he 
has taken the scaffoldings of religion to be the 
temple itself. As these are stripped away the 
Building stands out in its own wonderful beauty 
and symmetry. 

Like a great river which runs into the sea, the 
outflow of life is toward God. He has entered 



THE FORWARD MARCH 313 

the soul and by progressive steps is working out 
the ideal of divine and human oneness. Men are 
joining hands to help each other over slippery 
places to a firmer footing. They are saving their 
lives by losing them. 

Only the false, the unreal, and the unlovely are 
drifting backward, while truth, love, and goodness 
rise up in front like grand mountain peaks on the 
horizon which we are gradually nearing. The 
existing commotion is a symptom of advance. 
The virtue of that which we are leaving behind is 
based largely upon repression from without. The 
spiritual energy and light of the new era are to be 
radiant from the centre, and light up the pathway 
which will shine more and more " unto the perfect 
day." 



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II. Thought Habit 

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